Studies in male monkeys demonstrate that immunocontraception could work.

2004 DEC 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Experiments designed in North Carolina and conducted in India with macaque monkeys show for the first time that it should be possible to create a safe, effective, and readily reversible form of contraception for men.

Those experiments, described in the November 12, 2004, issue of the journal Science, involved immunizing fertile male monkeys with a purified recombinant form of Eppin, a harmless protein produced in the testis and epididymis of humans and other primates.

Although they bred, none of the males fertilized female macaques until after researchers discontinued the Eppin. Then, most of the animals succeeded in reproducing again. All remained healthy.

"These results are exciting to us," said Michael G. O'Rand, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and principal investigator. "Not only do they show that this approach, which is called immunocontraception, works, but they also should renew interest in the subject. Interest in immunocontraception fell off in recent years since scientists had not previously succeeded with it."

UNC Laboratories for Reproductive Biology coauthors of the Science report include research assistant Esther Widgren; Perumal Sivashanmugam, a former postdoctoral fellow now doing a fellowship at Duke University; Richard T. Richardson, research associate professor of cell and developmental biology; and Susan H. Hall and Frank S. French, research associate professor and professor, respectively, of pediatrics. Other authors include Cathy A. VandeVoort of the California Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, and A. Jagannadha Rao of the Primate Research Laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.

"Although several different choices and approaches are available for contraception in women, the choices for men are currently limited to condoms and vasectomy," O'Rand and colleagues wrote. "Male hormonal contraceptives developed over the past several years have now advanced to clinical trials, and the outcome ...