Comprehensive analysis of alterations in spermatogenic stages after immunization with lactate dehydrogenase-C in male albino rats

Abstract

The ever-rising global population emphasizes on requirement for the development of new contraceptive techniques that fits the needs and preferences of people during their reproductive phases of life. Immunocontraception is the process of inducing a humoral immune response by using a reproductive protein that renders a sperm infertile for a predetermined amount of time. One of the reproductive proteins found on the sperm membrane that is known to have immunogenic qualities is lactate dehydrogenase-C (LDH-C). The present study was planned to assess the effect of LDH-C as an immunocontraceptive agent in male albino rats. Sperm membrane extract (SME) was prepared using deoxycholate detergent. Proteins from the SME were separated on reducing SDS-PAGE, further fractioned by gel filtration chromatography on sephadex G-25 to isolate LDH-C proteins. Rats were immunized with purified LDH-C for a period of 28 days at weekly intervals. ELISA confirmed the presence of antibodies as a high antibody titre of 6400 was observed on 35 DPI that remained consistent till 77 DPI, and then declined afterwards. Fertility rate decreased by 85.70 % in immunized male rats. It can be concluded from the study that LDH-C antigens are capable of eliciting reversible immune response, significantly affecting the sperm motility amongst various sperm parameters and histological results have revealed that the effect of immunization was at testicular level as the total number of spermatogenic cells decreased in immunized rats making it a potential candidate for immunocontraceptive vaccines.

Keywords: Antibody; Immunization; Immunocontraception; Lactate dehydrogenase-C; Sperm membrane extract.