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Immunology Today, vol. 6, No. 11, 1985

18 Freitas, A. A., Rocha, B., Chiao, J. W. et aL (1977) Cell. Immunol. 35, 59-77 19 Freitas, A. A. and de Sousa, M. (1976) Eur. J. Immunol. 6, 703 20 Freitas, A. A. and de Sousa, M. (1977) Cell. ImmunoL 31, 62-76 21 Freitas, A. A. and Bognaeki, J. (1979) Immunology 36, 247 255 22 Stahl, P. D., Rodman, J. S., Miller, J. M. et al. (1978) Proc. NatlAcad. Sci. USA 75, 13991403 23 Carroll, A. M., Palladlno, M., Oettgen, H. et aL (1983) Cell. ImmunoL 76, 69-80 24 Carroll, A. M. and de Sousa, M. (1984) Immunology 52, 331 339 25 Kupiec-Weglinski,J. W., de Sousa, M. and Tilney, N. L. (1985) Transplantation 40, 1-6 26 Gallatin, W. M., Weissman, I. L. and Butcher, E. C. (1983) Nature (London) 304, 30-34 27 Carroll, A. M. and de Sousa, M. (1984) Immunology 52, 325-330 28 Kupiec-Weglinski,J. W., Diamanstein, T., Tilney, N. L. et aL Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA (in press) 29 Ottaway, C. A. (1984)J. Exp. Med. 160, 1054-1067

The immune profile of human seminal plasma SIR, K. J a m e s

and T.

B. Hargreave

(Immunol. Today 1984, 5,357-363) have

reviewed the importance of seminal plasma as an i m m u n e modulator. They highlight the complexity of the involved materials and state that the isolation and characterization of these components is, an urgent priority. O u r observations and data acquired in m a n y experiments since 1976 completely support their conclusions 1. They state that they are unaware of reports on the effect of seminal plasma on cell-mediated i m m u n e reactions in vivo. W e recently determined the in-vivo activity of seminal plasma materials by injecting BALB/c mice intravenously with (1) pooled h u m a n seminal plasma (HSP), (2) H S P fraction 1 (Frl) prepared from an ultracentrifuged preparation chromatographed on 'Sephadex' G-100, (3) normal h u m a n serum (NHS), and (4) R i n g e r ' s solution. After sacrifice, the spleens were removed and the resultant

These letters were shown to Drs Hooghe and Pink, who replied as follows: SIR, W e are glad that Drs de Sousa and Carroll, and Professor Kolb et al., have taken this opportunity to c o m m e n t and expand on some of the points made in our article. O n e point raised in both letters concerns the Kupffer cell galactose receptor described by Kolb et al. This receptor might indeed be important in trapping neuraminidase-treated lymphocytes; however, a role for the hepatocyte galactose receptor in this process 1 has not been excluded, since the experiments of Kolb et al. deal primarily with erythrocytes, whose fate differs from that of lymphocytes following neuraminidase treatment 2. Since our article deak with recent biochemical data on lymphocyte homing, we did not quote (other than indirectly,

cell suspensions incubated with and without phytohaemagglutinin-P (PHAp)2. T h e P H A - P responses o f normal mouse lymphocytes were suppressed by H S P and H S P F r l . However, cells from mice injected with the various H S P fractions showed an enhanced, but variable and dose-dependent, response to P H A - P compared with cells from normal mice and mice injected with R i n g e r ' s solution or N H S . These very preliminary experiments suggest that under different circumstances, these materials from seminal plasma may have both inhibitory and stimulatory f u n c t i o n s , thus indicating that they are i m m u n o m o d u l a t i n g materials. W e have also shown that prior treatment of the inhibitor material isolated by centrifugation from H S P with trypsin virtually abolished its biological function 2. Other important properties of seminal plasma relate to the observations on anaphylaxis to H S P in certain women. A n u m b e r of studies have now shown that in patients with this particular hypersensitivity, IgE antibodies to both

© 1985,ElsevierSciencePublishersB.V.,Amsterdam 0167- 4919/85/$02.00

by referring to a review article in our introductory paragraph) important experiments dealing with cellular aspects of lymphocyte traffic, such as those described by de Sousa and Carroll. In the light of their comments and elegant contributions to this field, we revise our last statement to read ' H o m i n g . . . is a complex j o u r n e y . . , the biochemical study of which is still in its infancy'. ~[] R.J. HOOGHE Department of Biology,

CEN-SCK, B - 2 4 0 0 Mol, Belgium

J. R. L. PINK Basel Institutefor Immunology, CH-400S, Basel, Switzerland

References 1 Freitas, A. A. and de Sousa, M. (1976) Cell ImmunoL 22, 345 2 Kolb-Baehofen, V. et al. (1984) BioL Cell 51, 219

whole H S P and Sephadex G-100 fractions 2 and 3, can be demonstrated by direct skin tests, leukocyte histamine release, radioallergosorbent tests and their inhibition, and neutralization of passive transfer antibodies 3'4. Further studies on seminal plasma in h u m a n disease and in experimental models should provide important information relating to local and systemic i m m u n e responses and help our understanding o f this important system.

n-i EVELYN V. HESS I. LEONARD BERNSTEIN Division of Immunology, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267, USA.

References 1 2 3 4

Hess, E. V. (1983) Clin. Immunol. Newsletter 5, 65 Marcus, Z. H., Hess, E. V. and Freishein, J. H. (1983) Int. J. Feril. 28(4), 189 Bernstein, I. L., Englander, B. E., Gallaeher, J, S. et aL (1981) Ann. Int. Med. 94, 459 Friedman, S. A., Bernstein, I. L., Enrione, M. et aL (1984)J. Am. Med. Assoc. 251, 2684