Adhesion studies with cryotome sections of human kidney and lung respectively uroepithelial cells together with blocking experiments with competitive carbohydrates suggested that specific attachment of S. saprophyticus strain S 1 to host cells apparently is mediated by lectins. Accordingly, microbial lectin blocking with specific glycoconjugates or lectin dysfunction (after treatment of bacteria with subinhibitory concentrations of tunicamycin) significantly decreased staphylococcal adherence to epithelial cells. Chemiluminescence measurements of human polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) function yielded results suggesting importance of lectin-receptor interaction in phagocytosis, too, since PMN activity was significantly decreased after staphylococcal lectin blocking or dysfunction.