Seminal Plasma Glycoproteins as Potential Ligands of Lectins Engaged in Immunity Regulation

Beata Olejnik and Mirosława Ferens-Sieczkowska ()
Additional contact information
Beata Olejnik: Department of Biochemistry and Immunochemistry, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland
Mirosława Ferens-Sieczkowska: Department of Biochemistry and Immunochemistry, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Environmental pollution, chronic stress, and unhealthy lifestyle are factors that negatively affect reproductive potential. Currently, 15–20% of couples in industrialized countries face the problem of infertility. This growing health and social problem prompts researchers to explore the regulatory mechanisms that may be important for successful fertilization. In recent years, more attention has been paid to male infertility factors, including the impact of seminal plasma components on regulation of the female immune response to allogenic sperm, embryo and fetal antigens. Directing this response to the tolerogenic pathway is crucial to achieve a healthy pregnancy. According to the fetoembryonic defense hypothesis, the regulatory mechanism may be associated with the interaction of lectins and immunomodulatory glycoepitopes. Such interactions may involve lectins of dendritic cells and macrophages, recruited to the cervical region immediately after intercourse. Carbohydrate binding receptors include C type lectins, such as DC-SIGN and MGL, as well as galectins and siglecs among others. In this article we discuss the expression of the possible lectin ligands, highly fucosylated and high mannose structures, which may be recognized by DC-SIGN, glycans of varying degrees of sialylation, which may differ in their interaction with siglecs, as well as T and Tn antigens in O-glycans.

Keywords: glycosylation; lectins; infertility; immune response; regulatory T-cells (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10489/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10489/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10489-:d:895317

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().