AIDS Vaccines and Reproductive Immunology

It may appear that problems of reproductive immunology have little in common with issues of treatment and prevention of AIDS. However, the certain aspects of HIV immunopathogenesis are closely related to problems faced by reproductive immunologists. The development of prophylactic and therapeutic AIDS vaccines would greatly benefit from acquired experience in immune regulation of reproductive dysfunction. The spermatozoa and HIV are foreign intruders that must enter the host cell, oocyte or T-lymphocyte, in order to start the replication process. The immune responses of the host organism against fertilized egg or HIV-impregnated lymphocyte must be similar, since in theory they are directed against alloantigens presented by such cells. This paper attempts to bring together the recent advances in AIDS field with progress made in the physiology and pathology of reproduction in humans, especially in the domain of immunotherapy and prevention of recurrent spontaneous abortions (RSA). It is our opinion that the lessons learned from alloimmunization trials of infertile women are relevant to prophylactic and therapeutic strategies for HIV infection.