Interaction of Solanum tuberosum agglutinin with human platelets

Solanum tuberosum agglutinin (STA) binds to the surface of human platelets and leads to their agglutination. Lectin staining shows that 125I-STA most intensely labels a major platelet membrane glycoprotein identified as GPIIIa followed by GPIV . STA does not induce release reaction, TXB2 formation or platelet protein phosphorylation. Since STA-induced agglutination is independent of intracellular metabolism of platelets, STA may prove to be a useful tool to explore the clinical condition in which the composition of platelet membrane protein is altered.