DIFFERENTIAL CONCANAVALIN A BINDING OF CYSTIC-FIBROSIS AND NORMAL LIVER ALPHA-L-FUCOSIDASE

A novel technique has been employed to demonstrate that α-L-fucosidase purified from cystic fibrosis and control livers exhibits differential binding to the lectin Concanavalin A. The concentration of α-CH3-mannoside necessary to prevent 50% binding of α-L-fucosidase to Concanavalin A is considerably lower for the cystic fibrosis enzyme (13.5 vs. 33.3 mM). Comparable results were found when binding studies were done on crude supernatant α-L-fucosidase from 8 cystic fibrosis and 8 control livers (5.6 ± 0.4 mM and 13.2 ± 3.4 mM, respectively), without any overlap of values between the cystic fibrosis and control livers. These results suggest that comparative lectin binding studies on cystic fibrosis and normal glycoproteins from readily available tissues might result in an assay for detecting the cystic fibrosis genotype. © 1979.