Cytotoxic, cell agglutinating, and syncytium forming effect of purified lectins from Ricinus communis on cultured cells.

The toxicity of lectins from castor bean (Ricinus communis L.), ricin-D, ricin-E, and castor bean hemagglutinin, was investigated on five cultured cell lines. The differential effect of their constituent polypeptide chains was also investigated using these cell lines. Ricin-D, ricin-E, and castor bean hemagglutinin (CBH) possessed cytoagglutinating activity and cytotoxic activity to all five cell lines. These lectins showed the strongest toxicity to L5178Y cells, which are leukemic cells. The toxic activity of ricin-D was stronger than that of CBH in all cell lines. The constituent polypebtide chains of ricin-D and CBH were separated by DEAE-cellulose chromatography and designated as isoleucine chain and alanine chain denoted by their N-terminal amino acids. Only alanine chain of ricin-D was toxic to cells grown in vitro, whereas isoleucine chain of ricin-D and alanine chain of CBH were not toxic to the cells. Moreover, it was found that both lectins caused syncytium formation in NIH3T3 cells infected with Moloney leukemia virus and this cell fusion activity was shown to be exclusively associated with the alanine chain. Cytotoxic, cell agglutinating, and syncytium forming effect of the lectins is due to binding of the alanine chain of ricin-D to galactose-like residues of the membrane constituents of these cells.