Abstract
The C. albicans and S. cerevisiae mannans showed many unique biological effects against mammalian cells in vitro and in vivo through the triggering of interaction between mannan and its receptor. Purified yeast neutral mannan showed antitumor activity against solid type tumor. However, commercial mannans were crude and did not exhibit the antitumor activity. This activity was not influenced by the presence of side chain of mannan but depended on the molecular weight. The neutral mannan showed the lethal activity only in mice; the mechanism was due to the production of PAF and LTC4 and this activity did not correlate to the virulence of the yeasts. In conclusion, the mannan receptor recognized the macro structure of mannan to express the biological activity, which different from the antibody of micro structure-recognition.
