Correlation Between Two New Methods for the Isolation of Human Monocytes: Specific Reversible Agglutination with a Carbohydrate from Pokeweed and by Use of the Lectin PA-4.

Monocytes play essential roles in the activation of both T and B lymphocytes (1,2,3). To study the interactions of monocytes, as well as other cells, with the responding lymphocytes, methods of fractionating the different cell types are necessary. During our studies on cell surface carbohydrates and carbohydrate receptors on lymphoid cells, it became apparent that human monocytes strongly bound both a complex carbohydrate, and rather specifically bound the lectin Pa-4. These observations led to two new methods for the fractionation of human monocytes from peripheral blood.