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. 1979 Mar;39(3):241–246. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1979.47

Effect of carrageenan on the non-specific resistance of mice to injected syngeneic tumour cells, alone or in mixtures.

R L Wu, R Kearney
PMCID: PMC2009883  PMID: 465296

Abstract

The mechanisms of non-specific resistance to syngeneic methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcomas of mice were investigated. Results showed that a small tumour graft of 0.05 X 10(5) cells is greatly enhanced in growth when admixed with large numbers of cell fragments, killed cells or viable non-replicating cells. The enhancement of small tumour grafts in cell mixtures was found to be non-specific. Carrageenan, a known anti-macrophage agent, significantly increased tumour growth in normal mice. However, it did not enhance the increased tumour growth of 0.05 X 10(5) cells mixed with 10(6) viable, non-replicating mitomycin C-treated tumour cells. The latter observation indicates that carrageenan and admixed cells interfere with the same tumour-inhibitory mechanism and therefore cannot produce additive effects. The results give support to the concept of a non-specific macrophage "surveillance" system which appears crucial in controlling tumour growth, since it determines the establishment of small numbers of tumour cells while they can still be easily destroyed.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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