Tissue-specificity of reactivity to concanavalin-A of human cells in culture.

Concanavalin-A (Con-A) reactivity was studied to identify the tissue-specificity of cells established from various normal human tissues. Cells were treated with Con-A-labelled human red blood cells (C-RBC). C-RBC was not absorbed on the cells derived from the bone marrow, skin and liver. Lung-derived fibroblast cells showed weak C-RBC adsorption. Kidney-derived cells showed epithelial morphology and easily adsorbed C-RBC. These suggest that a large number of Con-A receptors exists on the membrane surface of kidney cells.