Cytochemical and ultrastructural studies concerning the cell coat glycoproteins in normal and transformed human blood lymphocytes: I. Variations of sialic acid containing glycoproteins subsequent to transformation of T and B lymphocytes by various kinds of stimulating agents

This is an ultrastructural study on variations occurring subsequent to blast transformation in the amount and/or topographical distribution of sialic acid end groups carried by the cell coat glycoproteins of human blood T and B lymphocytes as revealed by PTA staining according to the Rambourg technique. The transformation was immediately followed by a transient decrease of the surface labelling in both T- and B-derived lymph-cell lines, irrespective of the nature of the stimulating agents used for induction of transformation. Nevertheless, upon reaching their final cyto-differentiation step, cells of both lines seemed to recover their initial PTA staining patterns observed in the controls. This transient decrease in the relative number of sialic acid end groups during a period of dramatically rapid cell growth and multiplication may most plausibly be interpreted as reflecting an ‘incomplete maturation’ of the newly synthesized cell coat glycoproteins.