Effect of Some Glycosidase Inhibitors on Experimental Tumours in the Mouse

Abstract

β-GLUCURONIDASE and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase both hydrolyse degradation products from chondroitin and hyaluronic acid¹ and may be expected to participate in connective tissue mucoprotein catabolism in vivo. β-glucuronidase is known to show a higher activity in malignant tumours than in most normal tissues of many species and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase has a similar pattern of distribution of activity². The activities of both these glycosidases in transplantable experimental tumours in mice are much higher in solid, invasive, subcutaneous tumours than in non-invading but otherwise similar tumour cells growing in the peritoneal cavity³.