Abstract: The present study was designed to investigate the effect ofк-selenocarrageenan (Se-carra) on the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) from macrophages of micein vitro. It wasfound that Se-carra 0.1~10 μg/ml promoted the production of TNF from peritoneal macrophages of mice induced by LPS in vitro. It was demonstrated that 0.1~10μg/ml had no direct cytotoxic action onthe target cells. Besides, under the same condition Se-carra had no effect on the reaction of L929 cellsto r-TNF. Further experiment showed that peritoneal macrophages pretreated with Se-carra 0.1~10μg/ml for 8 h before LPS also enhanced the release of TNF.

Key words: к-Selenocarrageenan, Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)