Culture density and age-dependent interactions of 3T3 AND SV3T3 cells with immobilized and soluble Lens culinaris lectin.

Short term binding of both Balb/c derived 3T3 cells and SV3T3 cells to 2B-Sepharose coated with Lens culinaris lectin (LCL) was compared with their LCL-induced agglutinability in relation to culture density and age. The cells were grown for 4 days either to low (LD) or to high density (HD); for certain experiments HD-cells were stimulated (HDS) by a short trypsin treatment and/or by addition of fresh medium. HD-3T3 cells bound somewhat faster to immobilized LCL than LD-3T3 cells, although LD-3T3 cells agglutinated at lower LCL concentrations. In the case of SV 3T3 cells, binding was much less pronounced for HD than for LD cells. The agglutinability of HD-SV 3T3 cells, however, was greater than that of the other transformed groups. Upon stimulation, binding and agglutinability data of both HD cell lines began to resemble the results obtained with LD-cells. Taken together, the date revealed in all cases an inverse relationship between binding and agglutinability, i.e., high agglutinability was closely correlated with slower binding and vice versa. The results indicate that culture density and age-dependent differences in cell surface architecture can be detected by short term binding to immobilized LCL.