Cellular transfer of autoimmune aspermogenic orchiepididymitis (AIAO) by the i.v. route in the guinea pig

In this study, AIAO was adoptively transferred with a high proportion of success to syngeneic recipient guinea pigs. Donors of strains 2 and 13 were sensitized with a series of spermatozoal autoantigens (whole spermatozoa and three autoantigens isolated therefrom: S, P and T). Syngeneic (experimental) and allogeneic (control) recipients were all transferred by strictly i.v. injections of lymphoid cells. The damage observed in testis and epididymis (mainly in the latter) was identical to, but milder than, that seen in active forms of AIAO. The incidence and severity of the disease were dependent on: the type of inducing antigen, S, T, P in order of decreasing efficiency; the length of immunization in donors, with increasingly serious lesions as periods ranged from 1 to 4 weeks; the presence or not of a complementary treatment of recipients with bacterial adjuvant enhancing the disease. Other parameters were less important, such as the strain 2 or 13 specificities, the amount of immunogen or the addition of peritoneal cells to lymph node cells. Skin hypersensitivity was concomitantly transferred to a large majority of isogenic recipients. But the incidence and severity of the disease showed only a partial correlation with Arthus type or delayed type responses to autoantigens. Thus guinea pig AIAO, already known to be transferable by immune sera (mainly anti-P and also anti-T) may also be transferred in physiological conditions by sensitized lymphoid cells (mainly anti-S and also anti-T).