Influence of testosterone therapy on clinical and immunological features of autoimmune diseases associated with Klinefelter's syndrome.

To examine the role of sex steroid hormones in the development of autoimmune diseases, we studied five patients with Klinefelter's syndrome associated with autoimmune disease, three of whom had Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and two of whom had systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Serum testosterone (T) and LH levels, antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) titers, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), hemolytic complement (CH50) levels, and peripheral T lymphocyte subsets (OKT3+, OKT4+, and OKT8+) were measured before treatment, after 60 days of placebo treatment, and after 60 days of oral T undecanoate (TU) treatment. Before treatment and after placebo, with respect to normal men, the patients had lower serum T and higher LH levels, lower percentages and absolute values of OKT3+ (total T lymphocytes) and OKT8+ (suppressor/cytotoxic T lymphocytes) cells, and, consequently, an increased OKT4/OKT8 ratio.

Cytomegalovirus and male infertility.

Male infertility may be due to a multiplicity of etiologic factors. In this study we have investigated the presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in 150 infertile men (selected after the exclusion of other etiopathogenic factors of infertility) and 80 subjects screened for pre-marriage consult. CMV was found in the sperm of 7/150 patients and 3/80 subjects screened for pre-marriage consult.