A functional study of concanavalin A-histamine binding site overlap in Tetrahymena phagocytosis test

Treatment with histamine stimulated the phagocytotic activity of the Tetrahymena to a measurable degree, which was still demonstrable after a week (about 40 generations). Concanavalin A, which binds to the same membrane binding site as histamine, inhibited the stimulatory action of subsequently added histamine, but did not in itself influence phagocytotic activity in any way. The inhibitory effect of Con A on the histamine binding site proved to be dose-dependent. These observations stress the importance of investigating the functional context--as sole realistic measure--of receptor--ligand bindings.