AbstractThe study of animal lectins and glycoconjugates has become an important area of research in biomedical sciences, as these molecules are believed to play important roles in a variety of biological processes. This report describes a study of the expression of an animal lectin, IgE‐binding protein (ɛBP), also known as Mac‐2 and CBP35, in human skin. We have analyzed cultured human keratinocytes as well as normal human skin and a number of epidermal neoplasms, by immunoblotting. immuno‐fluorescence and immunohistochemistry. We showed that ɛBP is expressed in human keratinocytes, hair follicles, sebaceous and sweat glands. We found that cBP expression retains in various epidermal neoplasms, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and keratoacan‐thoma, although the level of expression appears to be reduced as compared to normal epidermis. The immunohistochemical analysis also suggests that the level of ɛBP expression appears to be dependent on the degree of cellular differentiation of ker