The Inhibition of Anaerobic Glycolysis in Red Cells by Leukaemic Leucocytes

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Abstract
SUMMARY: Rates of anaerobic glycolysis were determined simultaneously in the red cells and leucocytes of patients with malignant haematologic disorders. The disappearance of glucose and the evolution of CO2 from bicarbonate were measured in the same Warburg flasks over the same period of time.In four patients with lymphogenous leukaemia and in one with acute leukaemia of disputed type but probably myelogenous, the leucocytes suppressed the glycolytic activity of the red cells. This abnormal finding appeared with exacerbation of the disease and disappeared with remission. It was present during the terminal phase in four patients, but could not be attributed to the presence of blast cells in the peripheral blood.The leukaeinic leucocytes exerted the same inhibitory effect on normal donor cells as on those of the patient. The plasma and the supernatant fluid from strongly inhibited reactions were without effect, as were aqueous and hypertonic extracts of the leucocytes. In all Warburg reactions the rate was constant, with no evidence of a cumulative effect. The inhibition was reversed by removal of the leucocytes.The characteristics of this phenomenon resemble molecular behaviour and suggest an equilibrium of some kind. Its kinetic properties closely resenible those of stoichiometric inhibition of an enzyme system. It is conjectured that an intercellular stress, perhaps physicochemical in nature, may have been exerted between the leucocytes and red cells, temporarily interfering with some event in thc glycolytic cycle of the latter.