[171 Fractionation of Subpopulations of Mouse and Human Lymphocytes by Peanut Agglutinin or Soybean Agglutinin

This chapter discusses that the application of lectins, a class of carbohydrate-binding and cellagglutinating proteins of nonimmune origin, to the isolation and characterization of soluble glycoproteins and for probing cell surface sugars is well established. It describes describe different procedures for the fractionation of murine and human lymphocytes by peanut agglutinin (PNA) and soybean agglutinin (SBA). The chapter reviews that among the several lectins shown to date to be useful for cell separation and identification, PNA is by far the most popular one. It can be used for fractionation of mouse thymocytes into immature and mature cell subpopulations; this lectin has been used for a variety of purposes in numerous laboratories, with murine and human lymphocytes as well as with lymphocytes of other species. It discusses that the application of soybean agglutinin (SBA), although rather limited, is of great importance since it has been shown that it can be used for the fractionation of cells for bone marrow transplantation in humans across histocompatability barriers.