Testosterone induction of cellular proteins in cultured Sertoli cells from hypophysectomized rats and rats of different ages.

Testosterone is essential for the maintenance of spermatogenesis, and the Sertoli cell is thought to be an important target cell for the hormone in the seminiferous tubule. The direct response of Sertoli cells to testosterone in cell culture was studied by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of radiolabeled cellular proteins. Changes in testosterone responsiveness with age and hormonal condition were studied by culturing Sertoli cells from 20- and 40-day-old normal rats and 40-day-old rats that had been hypophysectomized at 20 days of age. Two abundant proteins, numbered 1604 and 1605 for reference purposes, were consistently increased in response to testosterone treatment in all three sets of cultured Sertoli cells. Two other proteins, 1602 and 1603, were decreased with testosterone in all three Sertoli cell cultures. Densitometric scanning of the gels revealed changes in several proteins of low abundance (i.e. proteins that represent less than 0.2% of the total incorporated radioactivity on the gel) in response to testosterone. The majority of the changes in response to testosterone were in these low abundance proteins. Protein profiles from testosterone-treated cell cultures as well as control (no hormone) Sertoli cell cultures differed among the three groups of cells. This indicates that differences in Sertoli cell function in vivo due to age and hormonal condition are reflected in culture by protein profiles.