Comparative analysis of agglutinins from hemolymph and albumin gland of Helix pomatia.

The hemolymph of Helix pomatia contains a weak agglutinating activity. This lectin concentration was calculated to be about 1.8 micrograms.ml-1. Among the different red blood cells tested, pronase-treated sheep erythrocytes were found to be the most suitable indicator cells. Their agglutination could be inhibited by GalNAc and GlcNAc. The serum agglutinin was isolated by affinity chromatography using Sephadex G-200 as the matrix. It exhibited a single band in discontinuous PAGE. In the presence of SDS, subunits of 27,000 daltons were obtained which, after addition of 2-mercaptoethanol, partly dissociated into 13,000-dalton subunits. The biochemical properties observed were compared with those of the well-known blood group A-specific lectin from the albumin gland of H. pomatia.