Immunological changes in seminal fluid from different kinds of infertility.

Our previous workHas shown that the seminal fluid (SF) of infertile men presents an inusual profile of lymphocyte subsets. Paricularly, T cells and T suppressor are reduced, while B lymphocytes are increased, as compared with the same subsets of fertile men. In order i) to clarify the role of cell-mediated immunity in various kinds of infertility and ii) to correlate these ones with the imbalance of immune response we studied the humoral as well as cellular immunity in normo-asthenospermia and oligospermia compared to normospermia. Briefly, SF from ten fertile men and ten men belonging to two kinds of infertility above mentioned were processed in order to identify with monoclonal antibodies the subset of T suppressor, B cells and lymphocytes positive for IL-2 receptor(IL-2R) and trasferrin receptor (TR). The humoral immune response was investigated by means of direct immunofluorescence. In normo-asthenospermatic subjects Ts decrease of 20%, while oligospermatic men present a reduction of 30%. B cells are increased of 110% and 200%, respectively. The activation marker, poorly expressed on SF lymphocytes of control men, are increased in both kinds of infertility 228% and 757%, respectively for TR, 300% and 1000% for IL-2R. The humoral immune response well correlates with the increase of B cells and activated lymphocytes and the decrease of T suppressor.