Effects of glutaraldehyde and other drugs on concanavalin A-mediated red blood cell adsorption to nonsenescent, senescent and transformed human fibroblasts.

Concanavalin A (Con A)-mediated red blood cell (RBC) adsorption with the RBC coating method (in which Con A-coated RBC's are adsorbed to fibroblasts) was greatly increased by glutaraldehyde fixation of RBCs before Con A-coating and decreased by the fixation of fibroblasts. On the other hand, RBC adsorption with the fibroblast coating method (in which RBCs are adsorbed to Con A-coated fibroblasts) was decreased by the fixation of RBCs and increased by the fixation of fibroblasts before Con A coating. The fixation of RBCs or fibroblasts after Con A coating did not have these effects. In addition, the fixation of both RBCs and fibroblasts nearly completely abolished RBC adsorption with either method. However, the amount of [3H] Con A binding was not affected by the fixation. RBC adsorption with the fibroblast coating method was also affected by cytochalasin B, colchicine, NaN3 and dibucane treatments of fibroblasts. These drug treatments of fibroblasts, however, did not affect RBC adsorption with the RBC coating method, except cytochalasin B. In addition, the effects of drug treatments of fibroblasts examined occurred nearly to the same extent for nonsenescent, senescent, and transformed cells. Our results suggest that secondary processes after Con A binding, receptor mobility and receptor association with cytoskeletals, play important roles in RBC adsorption, but that the roles do not change with aging or transformation.