Isolation of a keto sugar specific agglutinin from rat uterus

A ketosugar-specific agglutinin has been identified and purified to apparent homogeneity by affinity chromatography from the three days post-coital rat uterus. This protein is not found in other stages of estrous cycle. The agglutinin is glycoprotein, moves as single band with molecular weight 37,000 in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and pI is 4.2. Among the ketosugars, fructose and ribulose effectively inhibit the agglutinin activity, beside these sugars, mannose, glucose, alpha methyl-mannoside and glucoside are also effective as potent inhibitors. Possible roles of this protein in pregnancy are discussed.