The mitogenicity, lethal toxicity and antitumor activity against Meth A
fibrosarcoma and the induction of
tumor necrosis factor (TNF) of chemically synthesized compounds designated as
A-103, 2,3-diacyloxyacylglucosamine-4-phosphate (GlcN-4-P), and A-503), heptose-(alpha 1----5)-2-keto-3-deoxyoctonic
acid (KDO)-linked GlcN-4-P (
A-103), were determined. Compound
A-103 induced significant incorporation of [3H]
thymidine of C57BL/6 mice at 25-100 micrograms/ml, and
A-503 showed the highest incorporation of [3H]
thymidine at 100 micrograms/ml. The mitogenicity of
A-503 exhibited a lower activity than of
A-103. Compound
A-503 showed no lethality at high doses of 25 and 50 micrograms/mouse in C57BL/6 mice loaded with D-
galactosamine, whereas
A-103 caused the death of one of three mice at a dose of 50 micrograms/mouse. Although, the two compounds with or without
muramyl dipeptide showed weak antitumor activity against Meth A
fibrosarcoma in BALB/c mice, but there were no remarkable differences between the compounds on antitumor activity. Peritoneal macrophages, stimulated with
A-103 or
A-503 caused no production of TNF which induces L929 cell lysis in vitro. These findings indicate that the addition of heptose and KDO to GlcN-4-P seems not to affect mitogenic activity, lethal toxicity, antitumor activity and TNF-production of the GlcN-4-P compound (
A-103).