Pure Pokeweed Mitogen (Phytolacca americana) 1mg

Lectins are proteins or glycoproteins of non-immune origin that agglutinate cells and/or precipitate complex carbohydrates. Lectins are capable of binding glycoproteins even in presence of various detergents. The agglutination activity of these highly specific carbohydrate-binding molecules is usually inhibited by a simple monosaccharide, but for some lectins, di, tri, and even polysaccharides are required. Pure pokeweed mitogen is used in mitogenic assays. It has variety of applications in vitro like blood grouping and erythrocyte polyagglutination studies, mitogenic stimulation of lymphocytes, lymphocyte subpopulation studies, fractionation of cells and other particles, histochemical studies of normal and pathological conditions. Pokeweed mitogen has specificity for sugar chains containing a di-N-Acetylchitobiose moiety such as is found on "band-3 glycoprotein" from human erythrocytes. Di-N-acetylchitobiose and tri-N-acetylchitobiose inhibit agglutination activity of the lectin. Product lectin is pure Phytolacca americana from Pokeweed. PWM is extracted from pokeweed roots. This protein has hemagglutinating, leukoagglutinating, and mitogenic properties. PWM is not blood group specific, but has affinity for N-acetyl-β-D-glucosamine oligomers.