The following is a continuing of my immunological hypothesis (1)
regarding sexual- and gender-orientations and may be cited as:
ti: Allorecognition and alloreactivity: a primary substrate
of human sexuality. (part 1 of 3)
au: Teresa C. Binstock (c) 1997
so: bionet.immunology April 24 1997
Caveat & Confessional: The following paragraphs have
few citations, because my intention is to provide
rhetoric wherein the basic argument is clear and do so
in ways not too molecularly technical, a realm which is
the province of most immunology articles. For a person
not highly familiar with immunology, many words will be
new; yet the immune system, in conjunction with surface
markers on human cells, is replete with sexual
dimorphisms known to have various effects; and the more
I read in these various literatures, the more I intuit
that the primary substrates of sexual- and gender-
orientations are immunological. Persons wishing a
full-citation version of this paper not yet finished,
please e-write me directly.
HETEROSEXUAL INTERACTIONS AS ALLORECOGNITION AND ALLOREACTIVITY:
(1) Cells are exchanged between individuals, whether by airborne
transmission of cells (eg, from dead skin) or skin contact or via
exchanges of mucous or saliva, eg, from a sneeze or during
kissing, because saliva contains a person's own desquamated
cells from the oral cavity.
(2) Via lysis of cells from other persons and macropinocytosis
and/or via other immune recognition processes, various of the
perceiving individual's immunological cells will respond in ways
based upon the sexual dimorphisms and MHC- and mHLA haplotypes of
the other person's cells.
(3) During prolonged contact such as intimate kissing,
(a) each person's immunological cells of the upper
epithelial mucosa (nasal and oral cavities and
bronchii) and lips will receive and immunologically
interpret the cells, cell fragments, and cell-surface
markers from the other person,
(b) allorecognition and alloreactivity -- processes
occurring during transplation -- will occur and will
result in patterned release of cytokines, and
(c) via autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine routes, the
released cytokines and related cellular processes will
transduce the immunological perceptions into neural
responses associated with the interpersonal sexual
activities.
(4) Process of allorecognition and responses thereto also include
one person's immune system evaluating and responding to MHC-
molecules on the other person's cells, thereby providing a
mechanisms for mating-related haplotype recogitions as reported
by Wedekind et al, Boyse et al, and by others.
ENCODINGS OF XY-MALES: Each male will have his own MHC-haplotype
and his own pattern of mHLA expression. Each male's cells will
have one each of HY-etc and HX-etc and subsets of his cells and
early T-cells will express SRY (McVay & Carding 1996). Products
from these various genes will contribute the male's immunological
sense of self, and that innate sense of self and immunological
processes related thereto will participate in his responses to
other individuals in ways specific to the XY or XX status of the
perceived individuals.
ENCODINGS OF XX-FEMALES: Each female will have her own MHC-
haplotype and her own pattern of mHLA expression. In most
females, neither HY nor SRY will be expressed, because in most XX
females, the genes for HY and for SRY are not present. Products
from these various genes will contribute the female's
immunological sense of self; and that immunological sense of
innate self and immunological processes related thereto will
participate in her responses to other individuals in ways
specific to the XY or XX status of the perceived individuals.
(1)
Series of postings stating: Immunological hypothesis of sexual and gender
orientations. <Bionet.Neuroscience> March 1996.
End of Part 1 of 3
