Wool grease-derived alpha-monohydric fatty alcohols are carcinostatic depending on their branched alkyl moiety bulkiness.
Wool fatty alcohols (WF-Alc) separated from esterolysates of sheep cutaneous wax were fractionated by molecular distillation and HPLC, resulting in two homogeneous antitumor compounds identified by GC-MS and 13C-/1H-NMR as a-monohydric branched saturated fatty alcohols, 14-methyl-1-pentadecanol (iso-C16OH) and 14-methyl-1-hexadecanol (anteiso-C17OH). Both the alcohols markedly prolonged the life-span of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma- or S180 fibrosarcoma-implanted mice without acute toxic side-effects, whereas other iso- or n-fatty alcohols (C16-C30) contained in WF-Alc were slightly effective. Thus antitumor activity of WF-Alc depended on the molecular balanced hydrophobicity attributed to both the branched alkyl moiety bulkiness derived from the diverse fatty alcohols contained, and a hydroxyl group.
Division of Cell Biochemistry, Hiroshima Prefectural University School of BioScience, Japan.
N
N
Miwa
S
S
Nakamura
N
N
Nagao
S
S
Naruse
H
H
Ito
Y
Y
Takada
K
K
Kageyama
D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D012756:Sheep; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014885:Waxes / Q000737:chemistry*; D014935:Wool / Q000737:chemistry*
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D005233:Fatty Alcohols; D014885:Waxes