Cytochemical comparison between wheat germ agglutinin and concanavalin A bound to mouse fibroblasts in vitro.

3T3 and SV 3T3 cells, prefixed or precoated with WGA, followed by treatment with ferritin-ConA, have less label than non-pretreated cells. When the same cells were treated with ferritin-WGA, neither prefixation nor precoating with ConA had any influence. Possible explanations are discussed. ConA-ferritin distribution is clustered, and WGA-ferritin is evenly spread on both 3T3 and SV 3T3 cells. We conclude that differences in lectin-induced agglutination between these cells cannot be attributed to a difference in lectin-induced clustering.