Lack of association of the development of anti-sperm antibodies and other autoantibodies as a consequence of vasectomy

Abstract

The possibility of autoantibodies--other than sperm antibodies--developing as a consequence of vasectomy has been investigated in 255 volunteers. During the first year after vasectomy no obvious increase was observed in the occurrence of any of these antibodies (rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibodies and antibodies against smooth muscle, mitochondria, gastric parietal cell, thyroid microsomes and thyroglobulin). Ninety-nine of the patients were also examined for agglutinating and immunofluorescent antibodies to sperm to see if there was any relationship between the occurrence of anti-sperm antibodies and other autoantibodies. However, the prevalence of non-sperm autoantibodies did not differ in two nearly equal groups of patients with and without indications of autoimmune reactions to spermatozoa, respectively. Consequently the present results lend no support to the hypothesis that vasectomy could induce autoimmunity to other autoantigens than sperm-specific antigens.

PIP: An earlier study was extended to determine whether "nonsperm" autoantibodies develop as a consequence of vasectomy. 500 volunteers were vasectomized, and blood samples were drawn before and at intervals of 6 months and 1 year after the procedure. 346 men submitted 2nd samples, and 255 men gave 3rd samples. All the samples were screened for the following autoantibodies: pheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibodies, antithyroid cytoplasmic antibodies, antigastric parietal cell, antismooth muscle, antimitochondria, and antithyroglobulin antibodies. 99 men were examined for sperm antibodies. There was no increase of any 1 autoantibody in samples obtained after vasectomy compared with prevasectomy samples. 45% of the 99 patients showed development or increased titer of sperm agglutinins. 47 of the 99 patients tested for sperm antibodies showed evidence of antigenic stimulation by spermatozoa or sperm products. The results show "no significant increase in the incidence of non-sperm autoantibodies during the 1 year observation period, and there was no correlation between the elicitation of sperm antibodies and nonsperm autoantibodies."