From Berlin and Witten to Southampton and Hamburg: 25 Years of Mistletoe Research Cooperation

A summary of the joint projects of the Witten and Southampton/Hamburg collaboration on mistletoe lectin (ML) research is given. The Witten group has isolated all three major MLs, and the other group has investigated the MLs' biological action on tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. The main conclusion of this work is that although MLs are cytotoxic to tumor cells in vitro, their main anti-tumor action in vivo is mediated via immunological mechanisms. In addition, a number of histochemical studies were conducted with MLs. The ability of ML-I to label microglial cells is a prominent feature of MLs in histochemical applications. Finally, a tabular description of the isolation of the three MLs is given.