Abstract
It is well known that anaerobic glycolysis of tumor cells is affected by irradiation, and this was already confirmed by us using Yoshida ascites tumor cells. In this case, cells to be tested for glycolysis were subjected to dilution, washing, centrifugation, heating and shaking, and as the consequence it can not be denied that the cells would exhibit different biological behaviors from when they develop and multiply in natural state in the peritoneum.
On the other hand, their anaerobic glycolysis is transiently inhibited by X-irradiation, and restored with the lapse of time. In tha case of in vitro irradiation, evident inhibition is observed after 3 minutes, but the glycolysis is restored to the initial level after 40 minutes. And so it is naturally anticipated that there would be some biological difference between cells with their glycolysis inhibited and restored.
With the object to ascertain these two points, Yoshida ascites tumor cells were investigated for transplantability. The cell suspension was prepared according to the procedures generally used for determination of the anaerobic glycolysis, and this was injected intraperitoneally to 4 groups of each 10 rats. After 28 days observation, positive transplantation rate (death rate) and average survival days for the dead cases were obtained. The 4 groups were as follows : Group I : Injected with tumor cells, non-irradiated and shaken for 3 minutes. Group II : Injected with tumor cells, non-irradiated and shaken for 40 minutes. Group III : Injected with tumor cells irradiated with 5, 000γ, and shaken for 3 minutes (glycolysis inhibited). Group IV : Injected with tumor cells irradiated with 5, 000γ and shaken for 40 minutes (glycolysis restored).
The death rates and survival days for the 4 groups were as follows : Group I : 9/10, 6.5±1.7 days, Group II : 10/10, 6.6±1.0 days. Group III : 3/10, 7.6±5.4 days. Group IV : 3/10, 9.4±4.3 days. From these results the following conclusions were drawn : i) Transplantability of tumor cells is not affected by physicochemical treatment; ii) irradiation with 5, 000r extremely lowers the transplantability; iii) there seems to be no direct relation between inhibition of anaerobic glycolysis and the transplantability of tumor cells.
