Receptor-like glycocompounds in human milk that inhibit classical and El Tor Vibrio cholerae cell adherence (hemagglutination).

The two biotypes of Vibrio cholerae were found to have cell-associated hemagglutinins which differ with regard to binding to different species of erythrocytes and inhibition by monosaccharides. A total of 12 classical V. cholerae strains (Inaba or Ogawa) strongly agglutinated human erythrocytes in a reaction specifically inhibited by L-fucose, whereas 12 El Tor strains preferably agglutinated chicken erythrocytes, a reaction reversed by D-mannose or by higher concentrations of D-fructose, D-glucose, alpha-methyl-D-mannoside, or sucrose. Milk from Swedish women inhibited both of these adherence reactions, and the predominating inhibitory activity for each reaction resisted boiling, was destroyed by periodate treatment, and bound a concanavalin A-Sepharose column, suggesting a carbohydrate structure. Further characterization indicated that the inhibitory activity for classical V. cholerae hemagglutination was distributed about equally on glycoprotein and free oligosaccharide, but was not present on glycolipid. The El Tor inhibiting activity, on the other hand, was almost exclusively of a high-molecular-weight glycoprotein nature. These results support our previous suggestion (Holmgren et al., Infect. Immun. 33:136-141, 1981) that human milk may contain receptor-like glycocompounds which can prevent bacterial adherence by competition with receptors on target cells.