Autoantibody formation against the antigens of the synaptonemal complex in the syngeneic immunization of male Mus musculus

: Male mice were immunized with the suspension of synaptonemal complexes (SC) isolated from mouse spermatocytes nuclei. The indirect immunofluorescent analysis showed the active binding of sera obtained from immunized mice to SC of mouse spermatocyte spreads. At early and mid-pachytene, SC can be clearly identified in 19 autosome bivalents and in sex chromosome bivalent. According to the electron microscopic analysis, all structural elements of SC bind antibodies. Metaphase chromosomes were not stained with the immune sera. Specificity of interaction between SC components and antibodies was confirmed in a series of control experiments. Analysis of sera obtained from mice after their syngeneic immunization with isolated SC fraction suggested that certain mouse SC components induce the formation of autoantibodies. This, in turn, suggests that these SC components are meiosis-specific.