Interaction between the Ricinus sanguineus agglutinin and receptor sites isolated from normal human lymphocytes

Solubilized surface proteins from normal human lymphocytes were obtained by mild trypsin digestion. The binding of membrane components to labelled Ricinus sanguineus agglutinin (molecular weight = 120,000 daltons) was studied by a gel filtration method. The bound and unbound lectin amounts were determined from the gel filtration patterns. The binding parameters were calculated from Scatchard plots. They were compared to the parameters obtained at the same temperature for the lectin-intact lymphocyte system. The respective values for the affinity constant, were 3.5 x 10(6) M-1 and 6 x 10(6) M-1. The calculation of the number of sites per cell in each system specifies the yield of the trypsin digestion.