McCoy J P
Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, PA 15213-2592.
Cancer Metastasis Rev. 1987;6(4):595-613. doi: 10.1007/BF00047469.
Mammalian cells invariably contain a vast array of glycosylated moieties, both inside the cell and on the cell surface. There is an increasing awareness of the utility of these carbohydrates in delineating the phenotype or function of many populations of cells. To this end lectins are extremely useful reagents. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins and glycoproteins of non-immune origin derived from numerous plants and animals. A wide variety of lectins with many distinct carbohydrate specificities have been isolated. Historically the most common laboratory techniques utilizing lectins have been agglutination, mitogen stimulation, and fluorescence techniques. Recent advances in the development and conjugation procedure for labels and matrices have led to the creation of numerous novel lectin-based assays. Lectins are currently used not only to identify cells with specified carbohydrate groups, but also to quantitate the carbohydrate groups or to isolate the carbohydrate-bearing cells or structures.
哺乳动物细胞无论在细胞内部还是细胞表面都始终含有大量糖基化部分。人们越来越意识到这些碳水化合物在描述许多细胞群体的表型或功能方面的作用。为此，凝集素是极为有用的试剂。凝集素是源自众多动植物的非免疫来源的碳水化合物结合蛋白和糖蛋白。现已分离出具有许多不同碳水化合物特异性的多种凝集素。从历史上看，利用凝集素的最常见实验室技术是凝集、有丝分裂原刺激和荧光技术。标记物和基质的开发及偶联程序方面的最新进展已催生了众多基于凝集素的新型检测方法。目前，凝集素不仅用于识别具有特定碳水化合物基团的细胞，还用于定量碳水化合物基团或分离带有碳水化合物的细胞或结构。
