Carboxymethylglucan (CMG), a water-soluble glucan derivative, enhanced the number of granulocytes in the peripheral blood as well as other indices of haemopoietic recovery (total cellularity and the number of granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells in femoral marrow, spleen weight) investigated after fractionated gamma-irradiation in mice (five doses of 2 Gy each, or three, four and five doses of 3 Gy each given at 24-h intervals). An increased liver weight and a more pronounced anaemia found in the CMG-treated mice suggested, however, that also inflammatory side effects were evoked by the repeated administration of CMG. On the other hand, the development of tolerance, i.e., a decreased effectiveness of the treatment with CMG upon its repeated administration, did not seem to play any major role under the experimental conditions studied, because the protective effects of CMG increased with the increasing number of CMG injections.

Institute of Biophysics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Brno Czech Republic

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