A simple lectin-mediated cell-adhesion method for investigating the cell surface.

A very simple, rapid and reproducible method has been developed for studying the interaction of lectins with the cell surface. This involves determining the number of adherent cells after shaking cell suspensions in Petri dishes which have had a lectin coupled to their surface using 1-cyclohexyl-3-(2-morpholinoethyl) carbodiimide metho-p-toluene sulfonate. Using concanavalin A coupled to 60 mm diameter dishes and between 1.5 and 2 x 10(6) tumour cells, this adhesion reached a maximum after 10 min shaking. Maximum cell adhesion also varied according to the particular lectin used. Adhesion was absent or was very low if cells were shaken in untreated dishes, or in dishes coupled to bovine serum albumin, or in the presence of the lectin-specific sugar-competitor. Under conditions of maximum cell adhesion, the binding of two different lymphosarcoma lines to four different lectins was very similar, whereas the binding of a carcinoma line to these lectins was completely different from that observed for the lymphosarcomas.