The effect of D-glucosamine hydrochloride and related compounds on tissue cultures of the solid form of mouse sarcoma 37.

Filtrates of cultures of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (3), Neisseria meningitidis (11), and Bacillus prodigiosus (Serratia marcescens) (4, 10) have been shown in laboratory animals to have inhibitory effects on cancer growth. Relatively pure preparations from Serratia marcescens culture filtrates have been used with equivocal results in patients with malignancies (8). In general, the effect of these preparations upon cancer appears to be associated with carbohydrate moieties containing hexosamine in the form of N-acetylD-glucosamine (4, 6). In addition, hypotension frequently follows their administration to animals or man. Quastel and Cantero (9) recently reported that the hexosamine D-glucosamine HCI, itself, inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 37 in Carworth Farms (C.W.F.) mice. They found that these sarcoma-bearing mice developed hemorrhagic, necrotic lesions within their tumors following repeated intraperitoneal injections of D-glucosamine HC1 in concentrations which produced no adverse effects on normal animals. However, Lettr6 (7) in a short paper indicated that he could not confirm the results obtained by Quastel and Cantero. The strain of mice he used was not mentioned. To obtain more information as to the nature of a possible tumor-inhibiting mechanism of D-glucosamine HC1, we have studied its effect, as well as that of several related substances, on Sarcoma 87 grown in tissue culture where hemorrhage within the tumor or a host reaction such as hypotension cannot take place.