Specificity of the Agglutinin in Extracts of Wheat Germ

Abstract

EXTRACTS of wheat germ prepared to contain lipase have been shown to have the additional property of agglutinating mammalian cells¹. This agglutinin is heat stable, and thus distinguishable from the lipase, which is destroyed by heating to 65° C. Aub et al. suggested that the agglutinin would agglutinate tumour cells more strongly than the equivalent normal cell^1–3. The implication that extracts of wheat germ contain an agglutinin specific for tumour cells is not upheld by the experiments described here, and which involve the ability of extracts of wheat germ to agglutinate red cells and to produce mixed cell agglutination, and the ability of various sugars and salivas to inhibit this agglutinin. Wheat germ lipase (10 mg/ml., Sigma and Calbiochem) was heated at 65° C for 15 min to destroy lipolytic activity¹; the preparation was centri-fuged for 10 min at 3,500 r.p.m. to remove the denatured protein, and kept frozen at −20° C.