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In the capillary tube migration system a synthetic muramyl dipeptide (MDP; N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine), a part of bacterial cell wall peptidoglycans, inhibited the migration of peritoneal exudate macrophages from normal guinea pigs or rats. The migration inhibition was also caused by some MDPcontaining peptidoglycan fragments from cell walls of Lactobacillus plantarum and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The migration inhibition could not be explained on the basis of macrophage migration inhibitory factor. A stereochemically highly specific structure of MDP required for its adjuvant activity was also required for the macrophage migration inhibition. These findings suggest that MDP and MDP-containing cell wall fragments may activate macrophages and that this activation may be important in the exertion of their adjuvant activity. We found previously that a synthetic muramyl dipeptide (MDP; N-acetylmuramyl-L

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