Lectins are proteins of plant origin, which have the ability to bind to certain neuronal surface glycoproteins and glycolipids. This ability of theirs helps them to be used as neuroanatomical tracers, as they are taken and transported in a retrograde or anterograde fashion.

Lectin from Lens culinaris (lentil) is used for size- or charge-based separation of proteins with the ANA. (Anisotropic Nanofilter Array: ANA).

LcH is not blood group specific. It has an affinity for terminal α-D-mannosyl and α-D-glucosyl residues. LcH is comprised of two isomers, LcH-A (mol. wt. 49,000) and LcH-B (mol. wt. 49,000). LcH-A is mitogenic. Conjugates are prepared from purified lectin.

Contains two major bands on electrophoresis corresponding to isolectins LcH-A and LcH-B.

Highly purified by affinity chromatography.

Agglutination activity is expressed in μg per mL and is determined from serial dilutions in phosphate buffered saline, pH 6.8, of a 1 mg per mL solution. This activity is the lowest concentration to agglutinate a 2% suspension of human erythrocytes after 1 hr incubation at 25 °C.