pCO2 Inhibition of Normal and Malignant Growth2

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Abstract
Evidence is presented for the theory that normal adult cells limit their own growth by producing inhibitory levels of free CO2 consequent to their own respiration. It is suggested that embryonic and malignant cells achieve the ability to grow continuously by using an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) generating system—glycolysis—that does not result in the production of CO2. Embryonic cells lose this auxiliary system as they mature into adult cells, but cancer cells develop glycolytic potential as they become malignant. Evidence from several sources suggests that free CO2 is a physiologically produced, nontoxic, reversible inhibitor of cell growth. Experiments by Root suggest that this effect may be achieved by limiting the supply of ATP consequent to the self-inhibition of respiration by its end product, CO2. If normal respiring cells are prevented from growing by a deficiency in their supply of metabolic energy, then embryonic and cancer cells may escape this physiological control by producing additional amounts of ATP through glycolytic mechanisms. To paraphrase Armin Braun's description of the crown-gall tumor cell, this suggests that, as a result of the transition from a normal cell into a fully malignant cancer cell, a specific growth-substance synthesizing system—glycolysis—becomes progressively activated. This leads to the production by the cancer cell of greater than regulatory amounts of this growth fcator—ATP. The continued production of this substance by the cancer cell could account for the unregulated proliferation of such a cell.

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