Immune response of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) to sperm antigens.

In the present study, male and female tammar wallabies were immunised with whole tammar wallaby sperm in adjuvant. An assay for sperm antibodies using a live sperm ELISA has been developed to detect sperm surface antigens and used to validate an assay using a 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl) dimethylammonio]-1 propanesulfonate (CHAPS) membrane extract of whole tammar wallaby sperm. The tests were used to monitor the immune response to whole sperm in both male and female tammar wallabies. Antisera with a limited array of specificities were generated, with those locating to the midpiece region of the sperm appearing the most likely candidates for targets for fertility perturbation based on immunofluorescence of fixed and non-fixed sperm. These systemically generated antibodies were demonstrated to have access to both the female and male tammar reproductive tracts and were found on ejaculated sperm and antibodies from female sera and follicular fluid-labelled fresh ejaculated sperm from non-immunised males. Preliminary sequencing of these proteins has identified some possibilities for further investigation.