lectins and competition

So, following on from my previous post, what would happen if you added a sugar solution to your 3D array of red blood cells bound together by lectins? 

Well, one of two things might happen. 

Either, the structure of the sugar in solution is so different from the sugar on the red blood cell surface to which the lectin is bound that nothing will happen...... 

Or, if the structure of the sugar in solution is similar to the sugar to which the lectin has bound on the red blood cell surface, the sugar will compete for the binding site of the lectin proteins. In this case, the more complementary the sugar in solution is to the lectin, the lower the concentration the sugar will need to be to disrupt the binding of the lectins to the red blood cells. In any case, once the binding of the lectins to the red blood cells is disrupted, the 3D array will be lost.

Simple really!