Lectins Binding to the Gut Wall are Growth Factors for the Pancreas: Nutritional Implications for Transgenic Plants

Dietary kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) lectin, PHA, is a powerful extraneous growth signal for the entire digestive tract (Pusztai et al., 1988; de Oliveira et al., 1988). It is particularly effective in inducing fully reversible, polyamine-dependent, hyperplastic and hypertrophic growth of the small intestine. However, other lectins which bind to the brush-border epithelium can also induce the growth and stimulate polyamine accretion in small intestinal tissue (Pusztai et al., 1990).