Substrate utilization by Ehrlich mouse ascites carcinoma cells.

The rapid rate of growth and multiplication of the Ehrlich mouse ascites carcinoma cells (6) indi cates the need for large amounts of nutrients for the production of protoplasm and the acquiring of energy for those synthetic processes. Recently, Christensen and Riggs (2) and Christensen, Riggs, Fischer, and Palatine (3) have reported the strik ing ability of this tumor cell to concentrate amino acids, and Klein (4) has studied nucleic acid syn thesis. Kun, Talalay, and Williams-Ashman (5) have considered a number of aspects of the energyyielding metabolic processes of this cell. In this study we are reporting data on (a) vari ous methods of preparing and handling the ascites carcinoma cells and the use of a washed cell sys tem for metabolic studies, (6) the substantially in creased rate of oxidation over the endogenous level with added lactate, pyruvate, oxalacetate, malate, Buccinate, a-ketoglutarate, citrate, gluta mate, aspartate, and alanine, and (c) the rapid rate of glycolysis and the markedly slower rate of oxidation in the presence of glucose.