Búsqueda de inhibidores de serina proteasas en glándulas accesorias del sistema reproductor masculino

ZALAZAR L; CLEMENTI M; FORNÉS MW; CESARI A

Reproducción

Sociedad Argentina de Medicina Reproductiva (SAME)

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2012 vol. 27 p. 79 - 88

Serine protease inhibitors modulate sperm physiology through unknown mechanisms. Redundancy of molecules bearing the same activity within the male duct denotes their significance. In order to characterize the population of this kind of inhibitors in accessory glands of the male duct, different approaches were employed to search for serine protease inhibitors in male mice tissues. Tissues with the highest activities were selected from extracts enriched in trypsin inhibitor activity and sperm protease inhibitor activity. Proteomic tools as affinity chromatography and 1D and 2D electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry were performed on seminal vesicle and epididymis fractions. These methodologies allowed us to identify SVS IV and SPINK3 in seminal vesicle and PI16 in epididymis. On the other hand, in silico search for serine protease inhibitors with predicted or demonstrated expression within the male duct of Mus musculus was performed using 4 databases. Twenty trypsin/chemotrypsin inhibitors were found and they were classified according to their families (Merops) or their Pfam domains. The results obtained by both strategies were complementary.