Antitumoral activity of polysaccharide isolated from Cyttaria johowii on the growth of sarcoma 180 in normal and splenectomized mice.

The antitumoral activity of the polysaccharide (PCj3) isolated from the Cyttaria johowii fungus on the growth of solid Sarcoma 180 (S180) in normal and splenectomized BALB/c mice was studied, observing that this treatment inhibited tumor growth in normal and splenectomized mice. At the same time, the effect of PCj3 on peripheral blood leukocyte populations on the 8th, 15th and 25th day of the experiment was evaluated. Results obtained on day 8 showed that all groups inoculated with S180 suffered an increase in the number of lymphocytes and neutrophils, corresponding the greatest values to splenectomized tumor bearing mice treated with PCj3. Neutrophils increase continued in all animals even without PCj3 treatment until the end of the experiment, while lymphocytosis was only maintained in the splenectomized groups. There was an increase in the number of monocytes on day 8 caused by PCj3 treatment with respect to normal values. It was concluded that PCj3 treatment more effectively delayed S180 growth in splenectomized mice, increasing the survival days as well as the lymphocytes, neutrophils and monocytes values on the 8th day of tumor growth with respect to the other groups.