Analyzing Molecular Complexes Containing Gangliosides via Co-Immunoprecipitation

Gangliosides are expressed on the cell surface, particularly in cholesterol-enriched microdomains that are referred to as lipid rafts. These are considered platforms for cell signaling because they contain dense gatherings of growth factor receptors and their intracellular signaling molecules. Gangliosides are believed to play important roles in cell-signal transduction due to their restricted localization in lipid rafts. A method for the detection of protein-ganglioside complexes would be indispensable in understanding the molecular function of gangliosides. This chapter introduces a basic immunoprecipitation method that can be used to analyze complexes that contain gangliosides. The process begins by performing immunoprecipitation against membrane proteins, which is followed by using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) combined with immunoblotting to analyze the gangliosides.