Recently, various lectins have been used for the study of neoplastic cells with the view of their specific agglutinating nature with carbohydrate containing membrane receptors.
The author performed an experiment with commercially available lectins, such as Concanavalin-A (Con-A), soybean agglutinin (SBA), wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), Ulex europaeus agglutinin (UEA), Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA), peanut agglutinin (PNA) and Pinellia ternate agglutinin (PTA), to the tissue sections of the normal endocrine glands, pituitary adenomas, parathyroid adenomas, pheochromocytomas and carcinoids. For histologic demonstration of lectin bindings, biotinylated lectins were used followed by application of avidinbiotinylated peroxidase and benzidine substrate.
The results obtained are as followings;
1. In the normal pituitary glands, WGA and Con-A showed positive reactions with the acidophilic cells of anterior lobe. And in the pituitary adenomas, WGA showed positive reactions with the growth hormone producing tumors, while Con-A showed positve reactions with the prolactin and growth hormone producing tumors.
2. In the normal parathyroid gland, WGA and Con-A showed positive reactions. However, parathyroid adenoma revealed negative reaction in 2 out of 3 cases to WGA and in 1 out of 3 cases to Con-A.
3. Normal adrenal medulla showed scattered positive reactions to WGA and Con-A. And pheochromocytomas showed diffuse positive reactions in 2 out of 3 cases to WGA and in all 3 cases to Con-A.
4. While normal argyrophil and argentaffin cells were negative to both WGA and Con-A, carcinoids revealed positive reaction to Con-A in all 6 cases.
5. DBA, UEA, SBA, RCA and PNA were negative for all normal and endocrine tumors.
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