A detailed investigation of the dynamic biochemistry of leukocytes is an approach to the study of leukemia of possible importance. Leukocytes offer striking opportunities for the study of human material on the level of cellular biochemistry.

Data have been presented on the oxygen consumption, glucose utilization, and lactic acid production of homogenates of leukocytes isolated from normal (N), chronic myelocytic (CML), and chronic lymphatic leukemic (CLL) blood. Glucose utilization was determined by the highly specific glucose oxidase method which gives higher disappearance rates than the reducing method. Tissues were incubated in buffered media containing added DPN, ATP, cytochrome c, phosphate, Mg++, and various substrates. Data were expressed per 1010 cells.

With glucose and hexose diphosphate as substrates, oxygen consumption, glucose utilization, and lactic acid production were significantly higher in N than in CML and CLL homogenates. Lactic acid production and glucose utilization were higher in CML than in CLL.

Leukocytes have a predominantly aerobic glycolytic metabolism. The ratio of aerobic glycolysis to respiration (in terms of glucose equivalents) is about 30 in N and CML and about 15 in CLL.

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Based on work performed under Contract No. AT-04-1-GEN-12 between the Atomic Energy Commission and the University of California at Los Angeles.

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©1952 American Association for Cancer Research.
1952
Cancer Research, Inc.