The rates of disappearance of glucose from the medium of 13 human glioma-derived cell lines and one cultured of normal human cortical astrocytes were determined by fluorometric techniques. High-grade glioma-derived cultures showed a range of glucose consumption between 1 and 5 nmol/min/mg protein. Normal astrocyte cultures and cultures derived from grades I-III gliomas had a glucose consumption rate of 2-3 nmol/min/mg protein. Seven high-grade glioma lines were derived from surgical samples taken from patients who had been scanned by 18F-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron computed tomography. The rate of glucose consumption in these high-grade glioma-derived lines was close to the maximum local cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (LCMRglc) measured in situ in the tumors from which the cultures were derived. In cultured glioma-derived lines, approximately one-half of the glucose consumed was recovered as lactate and pyruvate, suggesting a reliance of glioma cells on aerobic glycolysis. ATP and phosphocreatine (PCr) levels were variable in the glioma-derived lines, and ATP was lower in the glioma-derived lines than in the normal astrocytes. Levels and regulation of glycogen differed significantly among the various glioma-derived cell lines. Glycogen content did not diminish as glucose was consumed, suggesting that glycogen utilization is not tightly regulated by the glucose metabolic rate. These results suggest that human glioma-derived cell cultures (1) adequately reflect the metabolic capacity of gliomas in situ and (2) are significantly altered in several aspects of their glycolytic metabolism.
The enzymes of glycolysis and selected enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathways were measured by fluorometric methods in extracts prepared from cultures of normal cortical human astrocytes and from cultures derived from low-grade (II) or high-grade (IV) gliomas. The hexokinase and phosphofructokinase levels of the low-grade glioma-derived line were not significantly different from those of the normal astrocyte cultures. However, the activities of hexokinase and phosphofructokinase were consistently and significantly increased in the high-grade glioma-derived lines. The activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was significantly decreased in all glioma-derived lines and by more than 90% in the high-grade-derived lines. Other enzymes of the glycolytic pathway were not significantly different from those of normal astrocytes, or they showed a variation inconsistently related to the neoplastic state. Glucose flux is not apparently regulated to a significant degree of hexokinase in glioma-derived lines, since the measured Vmax values are in substantial excess over the measured flux rates. Reversible binding of hexokinase to the particulate fraction was observed in both the normal astrocytes cultures and the high-grade glioma-derived lines. A twofold displacement of particulate hexokinase by ATP, ADP, 1-O-methylglucose, sorbitol-6-phosphate, and dibutyryl cyclic AMP was observed in the high-grade glioma-derived lines. The degree of displacement by various agents and the basal ratio of free/bound was not significantly different between the transformers and the nontransformants. The hexokinase from both the gliomas and the normal astrocytes was noncompetitively inhibited by the glucose analogue 2-deoxy-d-glucose. Phosphofructokinase activity is close to the observed glucose flux rates in both the normal astrocyte and the glioma-derived cultures. The phosphofructokinase activity of normal astrocytes is activated twofold or more by ADP, AMP, fructose-2,6-diphosphate, and Pi. However, these same ligands activate phosphofructokinase by less than twofold in a typical high-grade glioma-derived line. ATP, dibutyryl cyclic AMP, and citrate inhibit glioma and normal astrocytic phosphofructokinase, but the magnitude of the inhibition is much less than in the glioma-derived lines.
Positron emission computed tomographic (PECT) scanning studies have demonstrated that high grade gliomas exhibit increased 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18FDG) uptake compared to cerebral white matter and low grade gliomas. Hexokinase catalyzes the phosphorylation of glucose, as well as 18FDG and 2-deoxyglucose (2DG), thereby "trapping" these slowly metabolized analogues intracellularly. We hypothesize that a similar hexokinase-mediated uptake of glucose and glucose analogues occurs in vitro. Hexokinase activity was assayed in homogenates of tissue-cultured lines derived from high (IV) and low (II) grade gliomas and in fibroblasts derived from skin. With glucose as substrate, the maximal activity (Vmax) in the Grade IV lines was 200% of the activity found in the Grade II line, fibroblasts, and astrocytes; however, the Michaelis substrate affinity constant (Km) bore no relationship to tumor grade. With 2DG as substrate, the Vmax of all cell lines decreased, but the Grade IV lines still tended to have greater activity than the others. The Km values for 2DG were 5 times higher than those for glucose. Hexokinase is found in two subcellular compartments: an active form reversibly bound to mitochondria and a less active, cytosolic form. Up to 20% of the total hexokinase was found in the cytosol in all lines tested. High energy phosphate compounds (ATP, ADP, CTP, and others) displaced mitochondria-bound hexokinase, which increased the cytosolic form by 2-fold in the glioma lines, but fibroblast hexokinase distribution was unaffected. Our results suggest that: (a) high grade gliomas have increased hexokinase activity, which may explain the grade-related differences in 18FDG uptake observed by PECT scanning, and (b) human glioma hexokinases may be regulated by reversible subcellular compartmentation.
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