Glycolysis in liver homogenates.

Recently, studies of anaerobic glycolysis in our laboratory led to the development of a medium for maintaining phosphat,e bond energy in homogenates of tumor (1). This made possible the study of synthetic reactions requiring such an energy supply. Subsequently it became necessary to have a medium in which homogenates of rat liver would maintain phosphate bond energy under anaerobic conditions. While a number of investigations of anaerobic glycolysis have been made with rat liver slices, the most recent by Warren and Ebaugh (2), very little information is available concerning glycolysis in homogenates of liver. Reiner provided some data concerning rat liver homogenates (3) and found several differences in behavior compared to brain homogenates. He was unable to obtain linearity with tissue concentration and reported irregularities in rate. In this study the medium of LePage (1) for tumor glycolysis was first used, and constituents were varied singly to determine the optimum for each. Then variations in each were studied in the presence of the optima of all other factors. The carbon dioxide liberation from a bicarbonate buffer was followed as a general indication of glycolysis rate, but the criteria used in evaluation of media were lactic acid production and net phosphorus esterification as measured by chemical methods.