Sertoli Cells

Maria João Freitas, Margarida Fardilha, Freitas, Maria João, Fardilha, Margarida

Sertoli cells are crucial for germ cell support, create a suitable environment for spermatogenesis, and integrate information from the nervous system and germ cell line. To fully understand the role of Sertoli cells, it is necessary to characterize the protein-protein interactions. Identifying the interactome of a given protein may provide leads about the role and molecular mechanism of such protein in Sertoli cells. One of the techniques to characterize protein interactomes consists of co-immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry or Western blot. Co-immunoprecipitation enables the isolation of a protein target and interactome under physiological conditions. In this chapter, we described how to perform an interactomic study using the co-immunoprecipitation technique in Sertoli cells. Moreover, we will focus on how to analyze and interpret the results of a co-immunoprecipitation before mass spectrometry analysis.