USE OF JACALIN AS A SOLID-PHASE IN ABO REVERSE GROUPING

A major problem of using red cells as the solid phase in assay systems is the difficulty to bind them strongly to appropriate surfaces. We r eport here on a number of lectins of different specificities which wer e examined for their ability to bind red cells to polystyrene 96-well microtitre plates. The use of the Thomsen-Freidenreich antigen-specifi c lectins, jacalin, mushroom and Maclura pomifera agglutinin proved th e most useful for ABO reverse grouping. Jacalin-coated plates were als o compared with plates coated with poly-L-lysine and bovine serum albu min/glutaraldehyde for the binding of erythrocyte membranes and were f ound to be superior. We also describe the colorimetric detection of th e solid phase red cell antibody reaction by using an indicator erythro cyte and peroxidase chromogenic substrate.