Immunological Effects of Thermal Injury I. Inhibition of Spermmatogenesis

It is generally agreed that thermal injury in patients and experimental animals may be associated with a variety of immunological abnormalities (1). Burned subjects have been shown to accord prolonged survival times to skin allografts (2), and this change has been associated with a diminution of their ability to exhibit delayed hypersensitivity reactions (3). In addition, the studies of Rosenthal (4) and other workers (5-11) have provided evidence for the formation of anti-skin antibodies in burned men, horses, dogs, rabbits, rats, and mice. Recently, McCarthy and associates (12, 13) have described antibodies to autologous erythrocytes in burned rats, detectable by direct anfiglobulin tests. A hemagglutinin directed against syngeneic erythrocytes was then demonstrated in the thoracic duct lymph of burned rats (14). In addition, "heterophile" antibodies against rat erythrocytes and human gamma globulin were detected in guinea pigs and rabbits exposed to repeated thermal injury, and in some patients with severe skin burns (15). I t has been suggested that the appearance of autoand heteroantibodies after thermal injury may be a consequence of the release of intracellular antigens and/or alteration of autologons antigens (16). These considerations have raised the possibility that thermal injury might be of value as an experimental model for further investigations of mechanisms of induction of autolmmtme responses. In the present study, controlled burns of one testis have induced the formation of testis-specific antibodies in guinea pigs. In addition, pathological changes have been noted in the germinal components of the contralateral testis. This response bears a similarity to the results of immunization with suspensions of testis incorporated in complete Freund's adjuvant (17). The pertinence of the results obtained by thermal