The influence of body temperature and castration on the protein composition of fluid in the rat cauda epididymidis

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Abstract
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing and non-reducing conditions, and immunoelectrophoretic analysis, revealed that several characteristic proteins disappear from the luminal fluid of the rat cauda epididymidis when it is maintained at body temperature. On SDS-PAGE gels prepared under reducing conditions, one Coomassie-blue staining band of Mr 18000 disappeared and another of 52000 was significantly reduced after only 6 days; bands of Mr 23000, several in the Mr 34-38000 range, one of Mr 48000, and others of Mr 100-200000 were eliminated or markedly reduced after 15 days at body temperature. Some were glycoprotein, as judged by their affinity for FITC-ConA. At 15 days after castration there was a broadly similar but rather more extensive disappearance of macromolecules, and of glycoproteins in particular, from caudal fluid. The fact that several similar proteins are diminished in or disappear from fluid or the cauda epididymidis maintained at body temperature, or after androgen withdrawal, raises the possibility that one or more such proteins play a role in sperm storage there.