Host Age and Cell Metabolism in Mouse Lymphatic Leukemia

Abstract

During the course of experiments on the relationship of cell virulence to cell metabolism, certain results indicated that the age of the host influenced the metabolism of transmitted leukemia cells. To investigate the effect of age, the following experiments were performed: Mice of 2 age groups (6-8 weeks and 6-8 months) were inoculated with the same transfer cells of a transmission line M-liver. Metabolic measurements, namely QO 2, QO2 CO2 and QN2 CO2 in Ringer's solution6 were made on the lymph nodes 4 days after inoculation. The mice were of strain C 58, 100% of which develop lymphatic leukemia after inoculation with line M-liver; 90% develop spontaneous lymphatic leukemia after 6 months of age. 1 So far as could be determined, i. e., from palpation and blood counts before inoculation and autopsy, no evidence of spontaneous leukemia was found in mice used. A summary of the metabolic results is presented in Table I. The metabolism was significantly decreased in every characteristic studied. The decrease in QO 2 of the leukemic lymph nodes parallels the decrease found in normal lymphoid tissue previously reported. 2 On the other hand the decrease in QO2 CO2 and QN2 CO2 is actually greater than the table indicates, for it has been found that the normal glycolytic rates are higher in 6-8-month-old mice than in 6-8-weeks-old mice. In other words the actual excess glycolysis, both aerobic and anaerobic produced by the leukemia cells is less than the values in the table.

To test the reversibility of the age effect, the following experiments were performed. The metabolism of the lymphoid cells of a mouse of Strain C 58 with spontaneous lymphatic leukemia was determined.