Experimental autoimmune orchitis (EAO) may be used as a model to investigate immunological infertility in men. Murine EAO is induced via immunization with auto-immunogenic antigens (AIAgs) from testicular germ cells (TGCs). CD4 + T cells play a crucial role in EAO induction. However, whether AIAgs induce an immune response remains unclear. We aimed to identify self-antigens that induce EAO by screening a phage display library of random TGC peptides using IgG from EAO-induced A/J mice. Twenty TGC-specific AIAgs were detected, and G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 interacting protein-1 (GIT1) and heat shock protein A4L (HSPA4L) were identified as candidate AIAgs that induce EAO. Immunization with GIT1 or HSPA4L, emulsified in complete Freund’s adjuvant, resulted in 66 % or 100 % incidence of EAO, respectively, indicating that HSPA4L is a most potent AIAg that induces EAO in mice. These findings may expectedly help improve the diagnostic procedures and treatment of immunological infertility in men.

实验性自身免疫性睾丸炎 (EAO) 可用作研究男性免疫性不孕症的模型。通过使用来自睾丸生殖细胞 (TGC) 的自身免疫原性抗原 (AIAg) 进行免疫诱导小鼠 EAO。CD4 + T 细胞在 EAO 诱导中起关键作用。然而，AIAgs 是否诱导免疫反应仍不清楚。我们旨在通过使用来自 EAO 诱导的 A/J 小鼠的 IgG 筛选随机 TGC 肽的噬菌体展示文库来鉴定诱导 EAO 的自身抗原。检测到 20 个 TGC 特异性 AIAg，G 蛋白偶联受体激酶 2 相互作用蛋白 1 (GIT1) 和热休克蛋白 A4L (HSPA4L) 被确定为诱导 EAO 的候选 AIAg。用完全弗氏佐剂乳化的 GIT1 或 HSPA4L 进行免疫接种，分别导致 66% 或 100% 的 EAO 发生率，表明 HSPA4L 是一种最有效的 AIAg，可在小鼠中诱导 EAO。这些发现可能有助于改进男性免疫性不孕症的诊断程序和治疗。