INCILARIA MUCUS AGGLUTINATED HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES

The body surface mucus from the land slug, Incilaria fruhstorferi, not only opsonized sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and agglutinated human types A and B erythrocytes (HRBC) but also caused hemolysis of B type HRBC 12 h after agglutination. The mucus-induced hemagglutination was specifically inhibited by a low concentration of N-acetyl D-galactosamine (GaINAc), and all of this activity was completely inactivated by heating at 56 degrees C for 30 min. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of water soluble fraction of the mucus showed that this fraction contained several proteins, the molecular mass of the main band being 35 KD. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.