- Title
- Sperm proteins and cancer-testis antigens are released by the seminiferous tubules in mice and men
- Creator
- O'Donnell, Liza; Rebourcet, Diane; Hobbs, Robin M.; McLachlan, Robert I.; Webb, Andrew I.; Pilatz, Adrian; Diemer, Thorsten; Smith, Lee B.; Stanton, Peter G.; Dagley, Laura F.; Sgaier, Raouda; Infusini, Giuseppe; O'Shaughnessy, Peter J.; Chalmel, Frederic; Fietz, Daniela; Weidner, Wolfgang; Legrand, Julien M. D.
- Relation
- NHMRC.10099002 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1009002
- Relation
- FASEB - Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Vol. 35, Issue 3, no. e21397
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1096/fj.202002484R
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Sperm develop from puberty in the seminiferous tubules, inside the blood-testis barrier to prevent their recognition as "non-self" by the immune system, and it is widely assumed that human sperm-specific proteins cannot access the circulatory or immune systems. Sperm-specific proteins aberrantly expressed in cancer, known as cancer-testis antigens (CTAs), are often pursued as cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets based on the assumption they are neoantigens absent from the circulation in healthy men. Here, we identify a wide range of germ cell-derived and sperm-specific proteins, including multiple CTAs, that are selectively deposited by the Sertoli cells of the adult mouse and human seminiferous tubules into testicular interstitial fluid (TIF) that is "outside" the blood-testis barrier. From TIF, the proteins can access the circulatory- and immune systems. Disruption of spermatogenesis decreases the abundance of these proteins in mouse TIF, and a sperm-specific CTA is significantly decreased in TIF from infertile men, suggesting that exposure of certain CTAs to the immune system could depend on fertility status. The results provide a rationale for the development of blood-based tests useful in the management of male infertility and indicate CTA candidates for cancer immunotherapy and biomarker development that could show sex-specific and male-fertility-related responses.
- Subject
- biomarker; cancer-testis antigen; interstitial fluid; sperm; testis; SDG 3; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1461401
- Identifier
- uon:46185
- Identifier
- ISSN:0892-6638
- Rights
- © 2021 The Authors. The FASEB Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). work is properly cited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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