Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the dynamic behavior of concanavalin receptor sites on rat lymphocytes. Studies on the binding of concanavalin A (Con A) to rat lymphocytes have revealed that these cells exhibit several million Con A binding sites on their surface. It has also been demonstrated that the occupation of less than five percent of these sites by lectin is sufficient for optimum blast formation and thymidine incorporation. It is established that lymphocyte activation is triggered by the interaction of surface receptor and ligand, but it is not clear how this event on the cell surface is converted into a signal that is transmitted to the cell interior. Recently, the cytoplasmatic-submembraneous structures, such as microtubuli and microfilaments, have been implicated in receptor modulation and signal transmission. The low, mitogenic doses of Con A do not lead to extensive receptor redistribution, as measured with fluorescent Con A. The chapter describes an experiment to study the behavior of the remaining free binding sites under several conditions as a possible probe for biophysical membrane changes at these low, mitogenic, concentrations of Con A.
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