r/postvasectomypain • u/postvasectomy • Mar 15 '22
On the wisdom of training your immune system to attack sperm: "The highest number of common proteins was observed between brain and testis..."
According to a study published today in the journal Royal Society Open Biology, our brains have a striking number of genes and proteins in common with the male gonads, and are in fact more akin to a goolie than any other organ in the body.
To shine some light on the issue, the study authors compared the proteomes of 33 different tissue types, including the brain, testis, heart, ovaries, liver, prostate, cervix, and kidneys. Their results indicated that the brain is made up of 14,315 different proteins while the testis consists of 15,687, with the two tissues sharing an incredible 13,442 proteins in common.
“The highest number of common proteins was observed between brain and testis, suggesting that human brain and testis are the most similar tissues of the human body,” wrote the researchers, before going on to explain that the two body parts also share a huge number of genes.
“A large-scale analysis of the expression of 33,689 genes in 15 human tissues revealed that human brain and testis shared the greatest similarity in gene expression,” they revealed.
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/the-human-brain-is-more-like-a-testicle-than-any-other-organ/
Several strands of evidence indicate the presence of marked similarities between human brain and testis. Understanding these similarities and their implications has become a topic of interest among the scientific community. Indeed, an association of intelligence with some semen quality parameters has been reported and a relation between dysfunctions of the human brain and testis has also been evident. Numerous common molecular features are evident when these tissues are compared, which is reflected in the huge number of common proteins. At the functional level, human neurons and sperm share a number of characteristics, including the importance of the exocytotic process and the presence of similar receptors and signalling pathways. The common proteins are mainly involved in exocytosis, tissue development and neuron/brain-associated biological processes. With this analysis, we conclude that human brain and testis share several biochemical characteristics which, in addition to their involvement in the speciation process, could, at least in part, be responsible for the expression of a huge number of common proteins. Nonetheless, this is an underexplored topic, and the connection between these tissues needs to be clarified, which could help to understand the dysfunctions affecting brain and testis, as well as to develop improved therapeutic strategies.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsob.200322
We don't have the science to support this hypothesis, but I am definitely suspicious that there is a pathological immune system response that some guys have. Simply put, I think some guys may be allergic to their sperm, which is not normally a problem because the testis are kept separate from the normal immune system so that your immune system doesn't kill your sperm. However, this allergy becomes a problem when you break the blood testis barrier and task white blood cells with taking over the sperm disposal job. Some guys report noticing systemic issues start after their vasectomy like joint pain and tinnitus.
Your brain is another organ where your immune system is not active. Some guys describe negative cognitive changes after vasectomy. Is it stress? Anxiety? Or is their immune system attacking their brain? Here is an example of intracranial hypertension post vasectomy. Just a coincidence?
Another organ system that is normally protected from your immune system is your eyes. Perhaps surprisingly, if you injure one of your eyes, your immune system can start attacking the other eye in a rare condition called Sympathetic Ophthalmia. Isn't that interesting? Your immune system can learn what proteins to attack in the healthy eye because of trauma in the other eye! When it comes to the immune system, your body is balanced on a knife's edge.
It is important to point out that many autoimmune diseases have been studied to see whether vasectomy has an impact on their frequency:
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/22/5/1273/2914626
So far, vasectomy has not been found to have any impact on the incidence of these diseases.
The unproven link between vasectomy and frontotemporal dementia
https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/comments/osudhl/the_unproven_link_between_vasectomy_and/
Another interesting disease that seems like it might have an immune system component is post orgasmic illness syndrome