ReviewAsian journal of andrology
The epididymal immune balance: a key to preserving male fertility.
Review in Asian journal of andrology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Special collection on immune regulation and inflammatory mechanisms in reproductive health and disease.Reproduction & fertility · 2026Article
- Common Environmental Hazards and Male Infertility: Effects on Epididymal Immune Microenvironment.Toxics · 2026Review
- Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Male Infertility: A Narrative Review of Diagnostic Value and Clinical Integration.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Epididymitis with abscess formation: experiences from a tertiary center in China.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2025Article
- First Evidence of Siglec-10 Localization and Expression in Camel Male Reproductive Tissues and Spermatozoa: Potential Relevance to Fertility.Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- Effects of Goji Berry Supplementation on Immune-Related and Antioxidant Gene Expression in the Male Rabbit Reproductive Tract.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Human efferent ductules and epididymis display unique cell lineages with motile and primary cilia.Andrology · 2025Article
- A lack of commensal microbiota influences the male reproductive tract intergenerationally in mice.Reproduction (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Decoding the Puzzle of Male Infertility: The Role of Infection, Inflammation, and Autoimmunity.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Immune Regulation in the Testis and Epididymis.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Basal and Immune Cells of the Epididymis: An Electron Microscopy View of Their Association.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- GLP-1/GLP-1R axis: from metabolism (obesity and T2DM) to immunity.Open biology · 2025Review
- Whole transcriptome sequencing of testis and epididymis reveals genes associated with sperm development in roosters.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- The single-cell atlas of the epididymis in mice reveals the changes in epididymis function before and after sexual maturity.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- The proteomic landscape of sperm surface deciphers its maturational and functional aspects in buffalo.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- CD9 protects the sperm from cytotoxic factors in the epididymis as extracellular components.microPublication biology · 2023Article
- The Role of Mononuclear Phagocytes in the Testes and Epididymis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Calcium Homeostasis in the Epididymal Microenvironment:Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Epididymal mRNA and miRNA transcriptome analyses reveal important genes and miRNAs related to sperm motility in roosters.Poultry science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Up to 15% of male infertility has an immunological origin, either due to repetitive infections or to autoimmune responses mainly affecting the epididymis, prostate, and testis. Clinical observations and epidemiological data clearly contradict the idea that the testis confers immune protection to the whole male genital tract. As a consequence, the epididymis, in which posttesticular spermatozoa mature and are stored, has raised some interest in recent years when it comes to its immune mechanisms. Indeed, sperm cells are produced at puberty, long after the establishment of self-tolerance, and they possess unique surface proteins that cannot be recognized as self. These are potential targets of the immune system, with the risk of inducing autoantibodies and consequently male infertility. Epididymal immunity is based on a finely tuned equilibrium between efficient immune responses to pathogens and strong tolerance to sperm cells. These processes rely on incompletely described molecules and cell types. This review compiles recent studies focusing on the immune cell types populating the epididymis, and proposes hypothetical models of the organization of epididymal immunity with a special emphasis on the immune response, while also discussing important aspects of the epididymal immune regulation such as tolerance and tumour control.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.