Preferable mitogenicity of beetle lectin, allo A, for the blood cell culture of macaques and its influence on apoptosis

Lectins with mitogenic properties on lymphocytes are requisite for chromoso me research or cell biology using peripheral blood cells. Though some lecti ns have been used as mitogens to stimulate lymphocytes in chromosome resear ch of macaques, those reagents have not always been optimum. At this time, an attempt was made to test the mitogenicity of lectin Allo A purified from the beetle in Japanese and Rhesus monkeys. Medium with Allo A produced a s ignificantly higher metaphase frequency and cell proliferation (p=0.022) th an that with Con A, which has previously yielded a higher quality. Dose eff ect experiments with ten monkeys revealed that 10 mu g/ml was the optimum d ose to obtain higher proliferation in both lectins. Though intact blood sam ples usually have many apoptotic cells, production of an optimum mitogen ca n be reduced in cell culture as an antagonistic result of higher proliferat ion. In this connection as well, Allo A was superior to Con A. Thus, Allo A is probably the most useful lectin found so far for obtaining a higher mit otic index of lymphocytes in Old World monkeys.