Concanavalin A-induced agglutination of human leukemic and lymphoma cells

With a newly developed turbidometric method, concanavalin A was shown to agglutinate normal lymphocytes, lymphoma cells, and leukemic cells from chronic lymphocytic leukemia and from acute myelocytic and lymphocytic leukemia. However, there was a marked difference in the kinetics of this agglutination process. Leukemic blast cells and cells from a patient with convoluted lymphoma agglutinated poorly in this system. Conversely, the degree of agglutination for chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells was greater than that for the blast cells and also slightly greater than that for normal lymphocytes. Cultured cells from a Burkitt's lymphoma (Raji) and from a patient with poorly differentiated lymphoma agglutinated very rapidly with concanavalin A. Prior incubation of all cell types with neuraminidase markedly enhanced the agglutination process similar to that of trypsinization. Thus, these studies illustrate the usefulness of this method in quantitating the kinetics of agglutination of various human neoplastic cell types by concanavalin A.