Evaluation of somatic and reproductive immunotoxic effects of the porcine zona pellucida vaccination

Immunological, immunocytochemical and fertility analyses were performed to determine the potential toxic side effects of porcine zona pellucida (pZP) vaccinations on target animals, including horses and dogs. The study was de signed to determine the effect of antibodies, raised against highly purifie d pZP, on somatic tissues. Immunocytochemical studies performed with fixed tissues showed that rabbit anti-pZP antiserum did not crossreact with brain , heart, lung, kidney, liver, bladder, stomach, small intestine, large inte stine, muscle, sb:in, spleen, pancreas, or lymph node of either the dog or horse. To determine the effect or oral intake on nontarget animals, female rabbits were fed a contraceptive vaccine containing pZP glycoproteins and t he synthetic trehalose dicorynomycolate in drakeol (S-TDCM) adjuvant. Enzym e-linked immunoadsorbent assay (LISA) analyses showed that rabbits fed with the adjuvanted pZP proteins did not develop circulating anti-pZP IgG antib odies that crossreacted with pZP. Furthermore, fertility studies performed on rabbits fed with adjuvanted pZP revealed no significant differences in t he number of embryos or stage of the embryos produced between the treated a nd control animals. Results of these studies suggest that the pZP vaccine d elivered to dogs or horses in field studies have no recognizable somatic ti ssue effects. Moreover, there were no side effects on nontarget animals sho uld they eat the vaccine. This substantiates field trials results about the safety of the pZP immunocontraceptive vaccine. J. Exp. Zool. 286:641-646, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.