Evaluation of labelling methods for bovine T and B lymphocytes

Two lectins, one from Helix pomatia (HP) and one from Peanut (PN), were evaluated as bovine T cell markers. HP attaches to about 40% of the bovine peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). With an indirect technique about 60% of PBL are HP positive, while PN attaches to a slightly higher proportion of the PBL. In double labelling experiments, HP was shown to bind only to Ig negative cells while 2% of the PBL were double labelled with PN and anti-Ig. The influence of different pretreatments of the PBL or the antibodies for labelling of the membrane bound Ig was studied. Preincubation for detaching cytophilic antibodies was important to avoid false Ig positive cells.