The effects of high fatty acid on the glucose metabolism of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells

The effects of high fatty acids such as oleic, richinoleic, linoleic, linolenic, palmitic and stearic acids, on the respiration, glycolysis, organic phosphate synthesis of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells, were studied. The unsaturated fatty acids added to the media enhanced the respiration of the tumor cells at the concentration lower than 0.2 mM, after a short incubation period and inhibited the respiration in a high concentration 0.4 mM. The saturated fatty acids did not show such effect. All the fatty acids, both of saturated and unsaturated, effected the increase in lactate formation in tumor cells, especially markedly at higher concentration being accompanied by the WQ increase and RQ around 1. The respiration lowered by the fatty acids was ameliorated by the addition of glucose. The lactate formation from glucose was greatly enhanced by the addition of fatty acids but hardly from pyruvate. The unsaturated high fatty acids proved to have a strong uncoupling action for oxidative phosphorylation. This effect could be recognized slightly in the saturated fatty acids. The addition of high fatty acid resulted in the striking decrease in ATP and ADP with the increase in AMP. With these results the discussion was conducted concerning the specificity of tumor cell related to the glucose and fatty acid metabolism.