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Immunosuppressive Effect of Uterine Secretory Protein from Angus and Brahman Cows upon Lymphocytes in Vitro^1,2,3,

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro 27411 and Texas A&M University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Overton 75684

Abstract

Uterine luminal protein collected on d 17 (estrus = d 0) from Angus (n = 20) and Brahman (n=19) cows of varying reproductive status was evaluated for immunosuppressive activity in vitro. Reproductive status consisted of the following categories: nonpregnant (uterine flushing was devoid of embryonic material); remnant (uterine flushing contained obvious degenerative fragments of embryonic tissue) and pregnant (uterine flushing contained an intact conceptus). Uterine protein was tested for suppressor activity in both phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) systems. Incorporation of [³H]-thymidine into 1 x 10⁶ Angus or Brahman lymphocytes for PHA cultures and 5 x 10⁵ lymphocytes from each breed for MLC experiments served as the index for lymphocyte blastogenesis. For all experiments, uterine luminal protein from nonpregnant, remnant and pregnant Angus and Brahman cows suppressed (P<.01) lymphocyte blastogenesis for Angus and Brahman lymphocytes, respectively. In two lymphocyte-uterine protein specificity experiments containing PHA, uterine protein from Angus cows suppressed (P<.01) blastogenesis of Brahman lymphocytes and uterine protein from Brahman cows suppressed (P<.01) blastogenesis of Angus lymphocytes. Within and between breed comparisons of suppressor activity were evaluated when expressing uterine protein culture data as percentages of control (no test protein) cultures. At 200, 400 and 800 µg/ml of uterine protein, suppressor activity was consistently greater in secretions from pregnant than from nonpregnant cows for each breed. For between breed comparisons, there were nonsignificant trends toward greater suppressor activity for nonpregnant Angus than for nonpregnant Brahman cows at 200, 400 and 800 µg/ml of protein. Suppressor activity was greater (P<.10) for pregnant Angus than for pregnant Brahman cows at 400 µg/ml of protein and tended to be greater for pregnant Angus than for Brahman cows at 800 µg/ml of protein. These data indicate that uterine secretory protein collected on d 17 from Angus and Brahman cows exerted immunosuppressive activity in vitro. Further, suppressor activity in each breed was greater in pregnant than in nonpregnant cows and suppressor activity tended to be greater for Angus than for Brahman cows.

¹ Journal paper approved for publication by the Director of Agricultural Research, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Univ., Greensboro.

² Journal paper TA 18769, Texas Agr. Exp. Sta.

³ The authors express their gratitude to Patricia Matterson, P. W. Burnette and G. L. Summers for their technical assistance. Gratitude is also expressed to Pamela Wilson for typing of the manuscript.

⁴ Dept. of Anim. Sci., North Carolina Agr. and Tech. State Univ. Research supported by CSRS/USDA Grant No. NCX-045-5-80-120-1.

⁵ Present address: Winrock International, Morrilton, AR 72110.

⁶ Texas A&M Univ. Agr. Res. and Ext. Center, Overton 75684.