Purification of the erythroagglutinin from
Phaseoluscoccineus var. Alubia was achieved byaffinitychromatography on human
1-acid glycoprotein and by ionexchange chromatography. The lectinis a tetrameric glycoprotein of 31 kDa/subunit with 8% sugar byweight, which agglutinateserythrocytes without serological specificity and is devoid of mitogenicactivity toward humanperipheral lymphocytes. The specificity of the erythroagglutininis directed toward the Gal (
1-4)or (
1-3) GlcNAc (
1-2) Man (
1-) saccharidic sequencepresent in bi- or triantennary
N-acetyllactosamine-type
N-glycopeptides or related glycans.Alubia erythroagglutinin inhibits thegeneration of human thrombin, very probably by protecting prothrombinfrom enzymatic cleavage.Keywords: Phaseolus coccineus lectin; glycoproteins; lectin sugarspecificity; coagulation factors