Surface Charge Characteristics of Cells From Malignant Cell Lines

ABSTRACT-Cells from malignant and normal lines of human hematopoietic origin were studied for their surface charge char-acteristics with the use of the following criteria: 1) the electron microscopic appearance of cell membranes after labeling with cationized ferritin (CF) either before or after glutaraldehyde fixa-tion, 2) electrophoretic mobility, 3) total sialic acid content, and 4) agglutinability with poly-L-Iysine (PLL). CF induced a time-dependent redistribution of surface receptors in unfixed malig-nant cells but not in unfixed normal cells. After 10 seconds of labeling with CF, both normal and malignant unfixed cells showed a uniform and even labeling pattern. After 5 minutes of labeling, malignant cells exhibited a highly pronounced pattern of clusters and patches, as distinct from a random and even pattern exhibi-ted by normal cells. Both normal and malignant cells after fixa-tion exhibited an equivalent random and even labeling patter