抄録
The technic of tissue culture has recently been improved so much that some cell lines can be carried in just the same manner as bacterial cultures. Siminovitch et al. (1957) showed that the growth mode of the L strain cells cultivated in suspension resembled those of bacteria. The HeLa strain cells which grow adhering to the bottom of culture flask were proved to have 3 phases, namely lag, logarithmic and stationary, during their growth (Yamada et al., 1956) . While it is known that bacterial cells change their physiological activities according to growth phases, no such kinetic observation has been made on animal cells in tissue culture. There are some reports (Warburg, 1955; Leslie et al., 1956; Phillips and Feldhaus, 1956; Phillips and Mc Carthy, 1956) on the metabolism of animal cells cultivated in vitro in respect to their malignancy. These findings, however, cannot be compared with those obtained on tissues in vivo with balanced nutrition and discharge, because it is obvious that the cells growing in vitro produce some changes in the closed environmental condition which in turn affect the physiological activities of the cells. The physiological activities of the cells in vitro, therefore, should be pursued throughout the process of their changes during the cell growth.
In the present study, the changes in endogenous respiration and anaerobic glycolysis of the HeLa strain cells were pursued through the course of their growth. It was observed that the utility rate of respiration was higher at the earlier stage and that of glycolysis increased as the cells grew. Those changes are considered to be due to the characters of the cells affected by the environmental condition in vitro.
