O-ACETYLATED SIALIC-ACID AS A DISTINCT MARKER FOR DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN SEVERAL LEUKEMIA ERYTHROCYTES

Achatinin(H) (ATN(H)) is a lectin, isolated from the hemolymph of Acha tina fulica snail, which has been shown to have narrow specificity tow ards 9-O-acetyl sialic acid. Usually ATN(H) does not agglutinate norma l human erythrocytes, however, it is capable of agglutinating erythroc ytes of patients suffering from acute lymphocytic and acute myelogenou s leukemia. Determination of binding constants, numbers of binding sit es and lectin overlay experiments using patients' erythrocytes ghost, have suggested that some alterations in erythrocyte cell surface sialo glycoproteins or more precisely appearance of some O-acetylated sialog lycoprotein as a result of pathological transformations has caused thi s change in the binding of ATN(H).