Genetic and other factors influencing the immune response in animal reproduction.

Abstract

Morphology and physiology of individuality depends on the genetic integration of the inner medium. All stages of reproduction in mammals are connected with inevitable contacts between genetically foreign structures: sperm-female genitalia; sperm-oocyte; mother-embryo. In this review, experimental data is presented regarding the problem of the genetic peculiarity of immune response to foreign antigens and data about rate and significance of the influence of exogenous and endogenous factors on the immune response activity. The paradoxical contradictions of opposite events, activation and inhibition of immune response at different stages of reproduction, and the practical significance of the relationships between them are discussed.