The inhibitory effect of various fatty acids on aerobic glycolysis in Ehrlich ascites tumour cells

Abstract

Inhibition of glycolysis in Ehrlich ascites tumour cells by saturated fatty acids, added either in form of potassium salts or incorporated into phosphatidylcholine liposomes, increases with the increasing carbon atom chain length and is independent of the concentration within the range of 0.1 to 1.0 mM. In contrast, the inhibition of glycolysis in the cytosolic fraction from Ehrlich ascites cells depends on the concentration of fatty acids. The content of ATP in Ehrlich ascites cells incubated with fatty acids increases with increasing carbon atom chain length, which leads to a crossing-over in the concentrations of pyruvate and 2-phosphoenolpyruvate. Lowering of the sum of both these metabolites by palmitate and stearate points to the inhibition not only of pyruvate kinase but also of other enzymes of early steps of glycolysis. Fatty acids in intact Ehrlich ascites cells inhibit all three key glycolytic enzymes but added to the cytosolic fraction affect mainly the activity of phosphofructokinase. The inhibition of pyruvate kinase by fatty acids is smaller in the cytosolic fraction from tumour cells than from liver and muscles.