• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.248-261
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• 1994

Background: Lectins are proteins or glycoproteins of non-immune origin that recognize a specific sequence of sugar residues. The availability of a large number of lectins has provided the capacity to identify selectively glycoconjugates possessing distinctive chemical structure in diverse sites of highly specialized biological activity. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the lectin binding patterns of various components in human pulmonary tubercles. Method: Biopsy specimens of tuberculous lung were obtained from male adult patients who underwent a surgical resection for severe pulmonary tuberculosis. The specimens were processed and stained with 13 kinds of biotinylated lectins according to some modification of Hsu and Raine's methods. Results: 1) In the caseous necrotic lesions, BS $I-B_4$ showed negative reaction and BS I were also negative except some irregularly-shaped cells located in the marginal zone. All other lectins, however, showed a positive reaction with various binding patterns. 2) The epithelioid cells were broadly divided into three groups according to the reaction patterns in the cytoplasms and cell membranes. 3) WGA, ECL, PHA-L, PHA-E and LCA showed strong staining in the lymphocytes. 4) SBA showed a different binding patterns between the endothelial layers located in the region beyond the fibrous layers and those located within the fibrous layers. 5) PNA showed a positive reaction in the outer 1/3 to 1/2 of the fibrous layer, but showed no staining in the inner 1/2 to 2/3 of the fibrous layers. Conclusion: The present lectin histochemical study provided a useful information to assess the characterization and distribution of various glycoconjugates in each constituent of human pulmonary tubercles. The results demonstrate structural differences in the glycoconjugate composition of various components of the tubercles and reveal changes in glycosylation in the components during soft tubercle formation. This study provides a new data useful for the studies on the pathogenesis and pathology of human pulmonary tubercles.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.127-132
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• 2015

To overcome the hyperacute immune rejection during pig-to-non-human primates xenotranasplantation, we have produced and bred ${\alpha}$-1,3-galactosyltransferase knock-out ($GalT^{-/-}$) pigs. In this study, the somatic cells and tissues from the $GalT^{-/-}$ pigs were characterized by an analysis of the expression of Gal${\alpha}$-1,3-Gal (${\alpha}-Gal$) epitope. Briefly, ear fibroblast cell lines of 19 homozygous $GalT^{-/-}$ pigs were established and cryopreserved. The expression of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope in the cells was measured by fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis using BS-I-B4 lectin. Also, the homozygous ($GalT^{-/-}$) cells and tissues samples were immunostained with BS-I-B4 lectin for analysis of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope expression. The results showed that the expression of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope in $GalT^{-/-}$ cells (0.2 %) were significantly (p<0.05) down-regulated to the range of cynomolgus monkey fibroblast (0.2 %) cells compared to heterozygous ($GalT^{-/+}$) (9.3 %) and wild type ($GalT^{+/+}$) (93.7 %) fibroblast cells. In the immunostaining results, while the expression of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope was detected a partly in $GalT^{-/+}$ cells and mostly in $GalT^{+/+}$ cells, it was almost not detected in the $GalT^{-/-}$ cells. Also, immunostaining results from various tissues of the $GalT^{-/-}$ pig showed that the expression of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope was not detectable, whereas various tissues from $GalT^{+/+}$ pig showed a strong expression of ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope. Our results demonstrated that ${\alpha}-Gal$ epitope expressions from $GalT^{-/-}$ pigs were successfully knocked out to prevent hyperacute immune rejection for further study of xenotransplantation.