Summary
Fatty acids, monoglycerides, and some esters of fatty acids show antitumor activity against Ehrlich ascites tumor in mice. For investigation of the in vivo mode of action of these lipids, the effects of those fatty acid esters on animal cells in vitro were studied in sheep red blood cells and Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. Throughout these studies, we used fatty acid sucrose esters because they are soluble in water, so that we could obtain reproducible results without interference from the solubility of the samples.
Most of the fatty acids and their esters showed hemolytic action in sheep red blood cells and tumor cell-killing activity in vitro. The tumor cells treated with such agents in vitro lost their transplantability in mice. The sucrose monoester of lauric acid, which showed the strongest in vivo antitumor activity, exhibited a strong in vitro activity, but polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20), which had no antitumor activity, showed the stronger hemolytic and tumor cell-killing activities. These results indicate that antitumor activity of some fatty acid esters cannot be explained only by their physical attack of the tumor cells.
Footnotes
- Received February 2, 1970.
- Accepted December 21, 1970.
- ©1971 American Association for Cancer Research.
Volume 31, Issue 5
