Polyactin A (PAA) is a home-made immunomodulator, isolated from submerged culture broths of alpha-hemolytic streptococci. The effect of PAA on the metastasis of B16-F10 melanoma cells in the syngeneic C57BL/6J mice and its antimetastatic mechanism have been studied. The results showed that: PAA inhibited the experimental pulmonary metastasis nodules at a dose of 100 mg.kg-1.d-1 for 18 d. The number of pulmonary metastasis nodules were significantly decreased from 137 to 95 as compared with those in the control; The plasma concentration of TXB2 in B16 bearing mice was higher than that in normal mice. After treatment with PAA, a decreased content of TXB2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha was found without change of the ratio TXB2 to 6-keto-PGF1 alpha. The cellular immunities were evidently decreased in the B16 bearing mice. The restoration of lymphocyte proliferation response and augmentation of the NK cell activity of the splenocytes were found in vivo in normal mice and B16 bearing mice after treated with PAA. PAA was also shown to antagonize the suppressing effect of cyclophosphamide on murine NK cells; PAA at the concentration of 10-5000 micrograms.ml-1 was found to inhibit the biosynthesis of DNA, RNA and protein in the B16-F10 melanoma cells to different degrees and the effect was dose-dependent. It is evident that PAA is effective in preventing the pulmonary metastasis of B16-F10 melanoma and the antimetastatic action may be related not only to promoting the effect the antitumor immunities, but also to inhibiting the growth of B16-F10 melanoma cells.