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Eliciting an immune response by plasmid DNA encoding a human sperm protein (HSD-1)
1National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
The cDNA encoding a human sperm membrane designated as HSD-1 was isolated from a human testis lambda gt11 cDNA expression library and assigned the accession number U12978 by GenBank. HSD-1 was conjugated to an eukaryotic expression plasmid (pRSV) to construct the recombinant plasmid pRSV-HSD-1. Female mice were inoculated intramuscularly with the plasmid DNA and the expression of HSD-1 was determined. HSD-1 mRNAs were detected in myocytes and endomysial connective tissue cells of the quadriceps muscle by in situ hybridization. Spleen of inoculated animals contained an increased number of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, phagocytes, and plasma cells. Fertility of the treated animals was not affected. Thus, intramuscular inoculation of female mice with the plasmid DNA (pRSV-HSD-1) results in the expression of HSD-1 and may elicit a tissue-mediated immune response.