Factors Influencing the Agglutinability of Red Cells

Summary Ox red blood cells of the so called ‘inagglutinable’ class have the same electrokinetic charge as those of the ‘agglutinable’ class when examined either before or after treatment with neuraminidase or pronase. However, a greater amount of sialic acid is released from the ‘inagglutinable’ cells after such treatments. These findings support the hypothesis that inagglutinability arises from the extensiveness of mucoid layer of the cell membrane, the ‘inagglutinable’ cells having longer mucopeptide chains of variable lengths or a greater degree of branching.