Reactions of normal and leukemic cell surfaces to a wheat germ agglutinin.

A variety of differences between normal and leukemic cells have been reported, involving such diverse characteristics as alkaline phosphatase content,"' 12 glycolytic rate, and nucleic acid metabolism.6 In most cases, however, the differences observed could have been due to variations in cell maturation levels rather than to leukemia-specific changes. We still do not know whether leukemia results from a malignant change within the leucocyte population or from an increase in essentially normal cells due to interference with leucocyte control mechanisms. In our laboratory, we have been investigating an agglutinin present in certain wheat germ lipase preparations which produces more clumping in murine tumor cells than in isologous normal cells.3 Hakamori and Jeanloz have found that the cell surface material involved in the reaction is also present in a glycolipid isolated from a human adenocarcinoma.7' 8 The lipase enzyme itself is not responsible for the agglutination observed since enzyme inactivation by heat or by p-chloromercuribenzoic acid does not destroy agglutinating activity. We have shown that the increased reactivity of tumor cells does not merely reflect a cell surface property related to rapid cell growth and division since spleen cells from newborn animals do not clump more than those from adults, nor do cells from regenerating liver clump more than those from normal liver. It was considered interesting, therefore, to determine whether or not a leukemic cell would behave like a tumor cell in respect to clumping when treated with wheat germ agglutinin.