Biology of Reproduction, Vol 1, 1-10, Copyright © 1969 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

Intrauterine Foreign Bodies: A Toxic Effect of Leukocyte Extracts on Rat Morulae in Vitro

¹ The Rockefeller University, New York City, New York 10021

Rat morulae were incubated in vitro so that they formed the blastocyst cavity during incubation. If an extract of polymorphonuclear leukocytes was added to the culture medium, the formation of the blastocyst cavity was prevented. The concentration of leukocyte extract required in the culture medium to arrest all ova before blastulation was about equal to that which was calculated to occur in the lumen of the rat uterus containing a foreign body, as determined by a comparison of lysozyme and -glucuronidase activities in the extracts and in uterine washings. It appears possible that the leukocyte components or products in the lumens of rat horns containing foreign bodies can be responsible for the infertility of these horns. Studies on the nature of the factors that arrested the development of ova in vitro showed that: (1) they were not associated with leukocyte lysosomes, (2) they were resistant to heating at acid or alkaline pH, (3) they could be fractionated by dialysis into three fractions, each of which was inactive by itself, but which exhibited the original toxicity upon being recombined, and (4) that the toxic factors were not limited to leukocytes, but rather were present in all of the eight cell types assayed for this activity. These results support the hypothesis that factors derived from degenerating polymorphonuclear leukocytes, or perhaps from damaged uterine cells, exert a toxic effect on fertilized ova in uteri containing foreign bodies and are thus responsible for infertility.

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