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Activities of lectins and their immobilized derivatives in detergent solutions. Implications on the use of lectin affinity chromatography for the purification of membrane glycoproteins.

The effects of several commonly used detergents on the saccharide-binding activities of lectins were investigated using lectin-mediated agglutination of formalin-fixed erythrocytes and affinity chromatography of glycoproteins on columns of lectins immobilized on polyacrylic hydrazide-Sepharose. In the hemagglutination assays, Ricinus communis I (RCA1) and II (RCAII), concanavalin A (Con A), and the agglutinins from peanut (PNA), soybean (SBA), wheat germ (WGA), and Limulus polyphemus (LPA) were tested with several concentrations of switterionic, cationic, anionic, and nonionic detergents. It was found that increasing detergent concentrations eventually affected hemagglutination titers in both test and control samples, and the highest detergent concentrations not affecting lectin hemagglutinating activities were determined. The effects of detergents on specific binding of [3H]fetuin and asialo[3H]fetuin to and elution from columns of immobilized lectins were less severe when compared with lectins in solution, suggesting that the lectins are stabilized by covalent attachment to agarose beads. Nonionic detergents did not affect the binding efficiency of the immobilized lectins tested at concentrations used for membrane solubilization while cationic and zwitterionic detergents caused significant inhibition of Con A- and SBA-Sepharose activities. In sodium deoxycholate (greater than 1%) only RCAI-Sepharose retained its activity, whereas the activities of the other lectins were reduced dramatically. Low concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate (0.05%) inhibited only the activity of immobilized SBA, but at higher concentration (0.1%) and prolonged periods of incubation (16 h, 23 degrees C) most of the lectins were inactivated. These data are compared with previous reports on the use of detergents in lectin affinity chromatography, and the conditions for the optimal use of detergents are detailed.

Chromatography, Affinity

Vertebrate lectins, Comparison of properties of beta-galactoside-binding lectins from tissues of calf and chicken.

Beta-galactoside-binding lectins were isolated from various calf tissues and from chicken hearts by affinity chromatography on asialofetuin-Sepharose, and were compared with respect to biochemical characteristics, binding properties, antigenic cross-reactivity, and cellular localization. The lectins are all thiol group-requiring, divalent cation-independent dimers, of apparent monomer mol wt 12,000 (calf lectins) or 13,000 (chicken lectin), and acidic pI. The calf lectins appear essentially identical by dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, amino acid composition, and radioimmunoassay, while the chicken lectin is distinctly different by these criteria. However, all of the lectins competed for the same binding sites on rabbit erythrocytes, and could be inhibited by the same saccharide haptens (notably lactose and thiodigalactoside). Immuno-fluorescence studies on several cultured cell lines revealed that the bovine and chicken lectins had primarily an intracellular cytoplasmic localization. The beta-galactoside-binding lectins of vertebrates appear to be species-specific rather than tissue-specific.

Amino Acids

Studies on lectins. XLIV. The pH dependence of lectin interactions with sugars as determined by affinity electrophoresis.

The pH dependence of association constants of the lectin-sugar complexes was determined by means of affinity electrophoresis. All the lectins studied (from the seeds of Dolichos biflorus, Glycine soja, Lens esculenta and Vicia cracca and of the fruiting body of Marasmius oreades) were characterized by a similar course of pH dependence of the association constants, with the maximum values at pH 7--9. For concanavalin A and the L-fucose binding Ulex europaeus lectin only the association constants at three selected pH values were determined. Concanavalin A does not interact with immobilized alpha-D-mannosyl residues at pH 2.3. The association constants vs. pH curves measured for lectins isolated from two different lentil varieties slightly differ in accordance with the differences observed in the interaction of these lectins with the Sephadex gel.

Binding Sites

A statistical evaluation of the binding of ferritin-conjugated lectins to the surface of rat cells. Topographical variations as a function of lectin concentration and cell type.

Statistical procedures were utilized to evaluate the concentration dependence of labeling by ferritin-conjugated lectins on four different rat cells: hepatocytes, normal thymocytes, Friend virus-induced rat tumor cells and feline sarcoma virus-induced rat sarcoma cells. Labeling by ferritin conjugates of concanavalin A, wheat germ agglutinin and Ricinus communis agglutinins I and II was quantitated by counting the number of ferritin granules on 600 Angstrom membrane segments. Relationships between the arithmetic means and variances for sample populations from each cell and ferritin-lectin combination were used to define four types of topographical distributions: uniform/ordered, uniform/random, random and clustered. It was found that the distribution and/or density of surface-bound lectin was concentration-dependent for all four ferritin-lectins. The nature of this dependency was complex and varied with both lectin and cell type.

Animals

The use of fluorescein isothiocyanate labelled lectins for immuno-histological demonstration of saccharides. III. Studies by use of Ricinus communis lectin and wheat germ agglutinin.

Cryostat sections of heart, skeletal muscle, spleen, liver, cartilage, brain, nerve, tongue, esophagus and salivary gland from man, rabbit, rat and guinea pig were stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate labelled Ricinus communis lectin and wheat germ agglutinin. The stained sections were examined by fluorescence microscopy. The general pattern of fluorescence is very similar to that obtained with labelled Lens culinaris lectin and Concanavalin A. Particularly the lectins stain connective tissue structures of the organs. The staining intensity in these structures was weaker by wheat germ agglutinin as compared to the other lectins.

Animals

Effect of neuraminidase and papain treatment on lectin-induced agglutination of Novikoff tumor cells and assay of lectin receptor activity of the glycopeptides released from the cell surface by papain.

Lectins, plant proteins that bind specific saccharide determinants, have been utilized to examine the effect of neuraminidase digestion on the structure and/or expression of oligosaccharide moieties present at the periphery of Novikoff ascites hepatoma cells. Five lectins were utilized: concanavalin A (Con A), specific for alpha-D-manno- or alpha-D-glucopyranosyl residues; wheat germ agglutinin, specific for 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranosyl residues; Ricinus communis agglutinin I (RCAI), specific for D-glucopyranosyl residues; R. communis agglutinin II (RCAII), specific for D-galacto- or 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactopyranosyl residues; and soybean agglutinin, specific for 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactopyranosyl residues. Neuraminidase treatment of Novikoff cells did not alter their agglutination by Con A or wheat germ agglutinin. Similar treatment produced only a 2-fold increase in their agglutination by RCAI but a 12-fold increase in their agglutination by RCAII, indicating that 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactopyranosyl residues become expressed upon neuraminidase treatment. This conclusion was confirmed by the observation that neuraminidase-treated Novikoff cells acquired agglutinability by soybean agglutinin. Binding studies using ferritin-conjugated RCAII indicated that neuraminidase treatment exposed cryptic cell surface receptors for RCAII. To ascertain the role of cell surface glycoproteins in lectin-induced agglutination of Novikoff cells, glycopeptides cleaved from the cell surface by papain were assayed for lectin receptor activity. The cell surface glycopeptides exhibited receptor activity for Con A, wheat germ agglutinin and RCAI but not for RCAII and soybean agglutinin. A cell surface macrosialoglycopeptide fraction, resolved by gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography, possessed a major portion of the Con A and RCAI receptor activity.

Agglutination

Effect of lectins on the levels of cAMP and cGMP in guinea pig lymphocytes: early responses of lymph node cells to mitogenic and non-mitogenic lectins.

Guinea pig lymph node lymphocytes were reacted with two mitogenic lectins (LcL-A or PHA) and two nonmitogenic lectins (AbL or WGA)m and the levels of cAMP and cGMP were determined during 30 min of culture. Various concentrations of LcL-A and PHA caused modest (1.5 to 2-fold) rises in cAMP levels. However, the rise in cAMP did not correlate with the degree of mitogenicity. AbL caused a greater rise in cAMP than the mitogenic lectins whereas WGA had no effect on cAMP levels. None of the four lectins causes an appreciable (i.e., greater than 1.5-fold) change in cGMP levels. There does not seem to be any positive correlation between early changes of cAMP and/or cGMP and mitogenesis.

Animals

The use of flurorescein investigations with concanavalin A, Lens culinaris lectin and Ricinus communis lectin.

Investigations on methods for the utilization of fluorescein-isothiocyanate-labelled Concanavalin A, Lens culinaris lectin and Ricinus communis lectin for immunohistological demonstration as simple sugar moieties are reported. The stainings were carried out on rabbit erythrocytes. Ehrlich ascitee tumor cells and various mammalian tissues. Optimum results were obtained in living cells and native cryostate tissue sections. The influence of different fixing agents and conditions of fixation on the degree of tissue flurorescence were studied. Generally the fluorescense decreased by aldehyde fixation. Similar effect was observed following fixation by heat. Furthermore, changes in the pattern of fluorescence depending on the type of tissue and utilized lectin were observed after aldehyde fixation. The degree of tissue fluorescence was fairly independent of the pH value. The specificity of the particular reactions for saccharide demonstration was shown; glycerol is capable of a differently strong "hapten-like" action.

Animals

Binding of peanut lectin to breast epithelium, human carcinomas, and a cultured rat mammary stem cell: use of the lectin as a marker of mammary differentiation.

We investigated the binding of fluorescence-labeled peanut agglutinin (PNA) to breast epithelium. Specific binding of PNA to the mammary glands of female Sprague-Dawley rats increased as the gland matured. Sexually immature rats showed relatively little fluorescence, but this increased in mature and pregnant animals. A maximum was reached in lactating rats in which significant labeling of material within the lumen was observed. PNA was bound exclusively to the epithelial and not the myoepithelial or mesenchymal cells. In tissue culture, a rat mammary epithelial stem cell line, which can be stimulated to differentiate to alveolus-like secretory or myoepithelial cells, showed evidence of PNA binding only on the secretory cells and not on unstimulated or myoepithelial cells. Fibroblast cultures also failed to show significant binding of PNA. Receptor sites on the secretory cells were masked mainly by sialic acid. Human breast sections, like those of the rat, showed fluorescent labeling at the apical region of the epithelial cells; this labeling increased if the tissue had prior treatment with neuraminidase. Breast carcinomas that were morphologically differentiated showed more labeling with PNA than did undifferentiated tumors, which often had weak or sometimes negative labeling. When significant fluorescence was observed, it was localized mainly in the cytoplasm. By contrast, labeling was restricted to the cell periphery in differentiated carcinomas. The use of PNA as a marker for breast epithelial cell differentiation is therefore proposed.

Animals

Lectins in the hemolymph of Japanese horseshoe crab, tachypleus tridentatus.

The hemolymph of the Japanese horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus contains lectins which agglutinate mammalian erythrocytes. Affinity chromatographic purification of the lectins using bovine submaxillary gland mucin-conjugated Sepharose resulted in the separation of the lectins into four fractions; one major and three minor lectins. Protein subunits revealed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the immunoprecipitin line of these lectins against antiserum to crude lectins were unique to each fraction. The activities of all the lectins were optimal at pH values between 6 and 8, and were destroyed by heating at 60 degrees C. Calcium chloride augumented the activities of three lectins, but the major lectin was not influenced by the salt. Bovine erythrocytes were not agglutinated by any of the lectins and comparative agglutination titers for other erythrocytes from various sources were different among these lectins. The activities of all the lectins were inhibited by N-acetylamino sugars. They were more effectively inhibited by glycoproteins which contain sialic acid.

Animals