Seminal plasma immunosuppressive factors in the spouse of a woman with seminal fluid allergy.

Women who are allergic to human semen may become sensitized because their sexual partners lack normally occurring immunosuppressive factor(s) in their seminal plasma. To investigate this possibility, we tested whole seminal plasma from the husband of a sensitized woman for its ability to inhibit in vitro phytohemagglutinin-induced stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a nonatopic donor. However, the immunosuppressive activity exhibited by the husband's seminal plasma did not differ from that in seminal plasmas from three other donors.