Studies on the nature of the extracellular components of the rat seminiferous tubular wall. I. IIsolation and chemical characterization of basement membrane

DENDUCHIS, B.; LUSTIG, L.; GONZALEZ, N.N.; MANCINI, R.E.

BIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION

SOC STUDY REPRODUCTION

Año: 1975 vol. 13 p. 274 - 281

0006-3363

In an attempt to isolate the seminiferous tubule basement membrane from testes of normal rats, a preparation (STBM) was obtained by a method involving the use of sieves, sonication, and differential centrifugation. Electron microscopic studies show that this material is mainly composed of basement membranes. A low proportion of collagen fibers and some cellular debris are also present. The N content, the presence of sugars and the very low amount of lipids suggest that the preparation is mostly glycoprotein. Moreover, STBM is characterized by large amounts of glycine, hydroxiproline and hydroxylysine (199, 66 and 16 residues per 1000 residues of total aminoacids, respectively) and the presence of 5.8 percent of carbohydrate composed of glucose, galactose, mannose, fucose, hexosamines and sialic acid. The aminoacid and carbohydrate composition resemble that of other isolated basement membranes.