[Physiological activity of fascaplisine--an unusual pigment from tropical sea fishes].

Various aspects of the physiological activity of fascaplysine, a pigment from tropic sea sponges, were studied. One of the fragments of the chemical structure of the pigment is the indole ring. Ehrlich tumor cells, murine lymphocytes and erythrocytes were used as the biological tests and it was shown that in high doses (up to 50 micrograms/ml) fascaplisine had a low cytotoxic action on the resting cells. When the tumor cells and lymphocytes were subjected to the action of the proliferative and mitogenic stimuli, fascaplisine in doses up to 1 micrograms/ml showed a high inhibitory effect on involvement of labeled thymidine, uridine and leucine into the cell biosynthesis of the macromolecules. No significant antitumor effect of fascaplisine was stated when its in vivo antitumor activity was studied with doses of 5 to 20 mg/kg on a model of Ehrlich ascitic carcinoma. The absence of the antitumor activity is likely to be associated with the observed suppressive action on the immunocompetent cells.