Synthesis and binding of lactose-specific lectin by isolated lung cells.

Neonatal maturation of alveolar structure in rat lung temporally coincides with the peak activity of a beta-galactoside-specific endogenous lung lectin of the type that has been linked to developmental processes in other tissues. To learn more about the lung lectin we examined four cell types for their ability to synthesize and bind the lectin. Cultured lung fibroblasts and pulmonary artery endothelial cells synthesized and bound the lectin, alveolar macrophages bound but did not synthesize it, and alveolar epithelial type II cells neither bound nor synthesized it. Pulmonary macrophages made a different lactose-binding protein that did not agglutinate or bind trypsin-treated red blood cells, a property of lung lectin that is the means of its assay.