Efficiency of the Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylations in Intact Ascites Tumour Cells

Abstract

IT has previously been shown that the incorporation of amino-acids into the proteins of ascites tumour cells is essentially the same both in the absence or presence of excess glucose under aerobic conditions and in the presence of excess glucose under anaerobic conditions^1–3. These results indicate that the energy (adenosine triphosphate) required for the incorporation process can be furnished by endogenous oxidations of the tumour cells as well as by decreased oxidation (Crabtree effect) plus aerobic glycolysis, or by the anaerobic glycolysis alone, thus discounting the so-called respiratory impairment of cancer cells⁴.