Quantitative Binding of 125 I-Concanavalin A to Normal and Transformed Cells

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Abstract
We have measured the quantitative binding of the radioactively labeled agglutinin 125 I-concanavalin A to normal mammalian cells and simian virus 40- and polyoma virus-transformed cells from tissue culture. Parallel measurements of the amount of 125 I-concanavalin A necessary to cause agglutination of the cells in suspension were carried out. The transformed and nontransformed cells used for these experiments show large differences in their ability to be agglutinated by 125 I-concanavalin A. However, these cell lines have the same number of specific binding sites and similar affinities for the agglutinin whether transformed, trypsinized, or nontransformed. We conclude that the differential capacity of concanavalin A to agglutinate transformed cells relative to normal cells does not result from differences in the number of binding sites between the two types of cells.