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. 1985 Oct;50(1):320–321. doi: 10.1128/iai.50.1.320-321.1985

Degradation of muramyl dipeptide by mammalian serum.

J Harrison, A Fox
PMCID: PMC262175  PMID: 3876287

Abstract

Muramyl dipeptide, N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine-D-isoglutamine (MDP), is the minimal biologically active subunit of bacterial peptidoglycan and elicits an acute inflammation in vivo. We now report that MDP is degraded by normal rat serum into its constituents, N-acetylmuramic acid and L-alanine-D- isoglutamine. The dipeptide is further degraded into its components L-alanine and D-isoglutamine. These results may help to explain how inflammation elicited by MDP is terminated in vivo.

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Selected References

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