A cautionary note on the use of lentil lectin affinity chromatography in the presence of sodium deoxycholate

When affinity chromatography with lentil lectin (LcH)-Sepharose was carried out in 0.5% (w/v) sodium deoxycholate (DOC), 10 mm Tris, pH 8.2, LcH consistently appeared in the 0.1 M alpha-methyl-mannoside (alpha-MeMan)-eluted fraction. Eluted LcH was recovered in both the control and specific immunoprecipitates with antisera directed against components of the glycoprotein fraction, suggesting that at least a portion of the LcH retained the capacity to interact with protein-bound carbohydrate. We suggest that the presence of functional LcH in the purified glycoprotein fraction is a potential source of artifact which may not be generally appreciated. When the non-ionic detergent. Nonidet P-40 was substituted for DOC in the same type of LcH-Sepharose fractionation, LcH did not appear in the 0.1 M alpha-MeMan-eluted fraction.