Agglutinability of cattle red cells. 1. Agglutination by lectins of enzyme‐treated red cells

Abstract

Pronase-treated cattle red cells (CRC) from different monozygous ( M Z ) twin pairs could be classified as weakly (titre 1:2, 1:4) or strongly (titre 1:1024, 1:4096) agglutinable when Phytohemagglutinin-M (Phy-M) was used as agglutinin. In the presence of concavalin-A (Con-A), the CRC from different M Z pairs treated with pronase, A-chymotrypsin or trypsin showed a gradation from low (titre 1:32) to high (titre 1:256 000) agglutinability. The trypsin-treated CRC which had A,, A2 blood factors usually had a titre of 1:8000 or higher with Con-A. Both the intact CRC and the CRC treated with proteolytic enzymes were capable of absorbing the Phy-M or Con-A lectins.

Agglutinability of cattle red cells. 2. Agglutination by isologous and heterologous sera of enzyme‐treated red cells

“…It could also be demonstrated that treatment with trypsin made the A,,A, blood factors more distinctly emergent on the surface of CRC than did the treatment with pronase. This observation seems to be consistent with the findings of Hines et al (1972) and the results described in Part 1 (Sellei, 1974), i.e. it was found that the receptor for Con-A which is associated with the presence of A-antigen became also more distinctly emergent after treatment with trypsin.…”

“…In some CRC although the Z blood factor was present the degree of agglutinability remained quite low. It was observed that these 'low reacting' cells belonged to the cells which had also low titres in the Phy-M agglutination test (Sellei, 1974). Moreover these same cells remained in the class of 'low reacting' cells when after pronase treatment the emergence of several other blood factors was tested (unpublished observations).…”

“…Blood samples were collected from 32 pairs of monozygous cattle twins, the same as those described in Part 1 (Sellei, 1974) and from 141 individual cattle for which the red-cell blood types has been previously determined by 42 different blood group reagents. All the animals were 12 months old or older and of the female sex.…”

“…Enzymes and enzyme treatments were used (except when otherwise stated in the text) according to the description in Part 1 (Sellei, 1974) of this series of papers.…”

“…Titrations tests and evaluations of agglutination were carried out similarly to that described in Part 1 (Sellei, 1974).…”