Peanut agglutinin (PNA) binding glycoproteins from four Hodgkin's disease (HD)-derived cell lines and a variety of cell lines/peripheral blood cells representative of the lymphoid and myeloid lineages were identified by probing nitrocellulose membranes of SDS-PAGE separated NP40 solubilized cellular glycoproteins with [125I]-labelled PNA. The two Hodgkin's cell lines Ho and L428 demonstrated the most heterogeneous glycoprotein profiles each expressing 15 PNA binding glycoproteins, respectively. The two remaining Hodgkin's lines Co and L591 expressed only four glycoproteins each and these were all also commonly expressed by Ho and L428. Comparative analysis with all other cell types studied revealed the expression of five glycoproteins restricted to Ho (gp42, gp40, gp38, gp24 and gp22) and six restricted to L428 (gp180, gp75, gp40, gp38, gp24 and gp22). Four of these, gp40, gp38, gp24 and gp22 were commonly expressed by both Ho and L428. Of cell lines of myeloid lineage studied only the erythroleukemia cell line K562 expressed detectable glycoproteins also expressed by some of the Hodgkin's cell lines (gp110, gp96, gp50 and gp45). Only one glycoprotein, gp20 expressed by Ho was also commonly expressed by normal peripheral blood granulocytes. This limited study has thus succeeded in demonstrating for the range of cell types studied, that some glycoproteins with terminal D-galactose beta (1----3) N-acetyl galactosamine oligosaccharide sequences are apparently restricted to two of the HD cell lines. Moreover, the heterogeneous glycoprotein profiles obtained for the HD cell lines Ho and L428 suggests that galactosylation processes in these two cell lines is aberrant.