The aim of the study was to assess the link between the metabolic profile and the proliferation capacity of a range of human and murine cancer cell lines. First, the combination of mitochondrial respiration and glycolytic efficiency measurements allowed the determination of different metabolic profiles among the cell lines, ranging from a mostly oxidative to a mostly glycolytic phenotype. Second, the study revealed that cell proliferation, evaluated by DNA synthesis measurements, was statistically correlated to glycolytic efficiency. This indicated that glycolysis is the key energetic pathway linked to cell proliferation rate. Third, to validate this hypothesis and exclude non-metabolic factors, mitochondria-depleted were compared to wild-type cancer cells, and the data showed that enhanced glycolysis observed in mitochondria-depleted cells is also associated with an increase in proliferation capacity.
Keywords: Aerobic glycolysis; Cancer metabolism; Electron paramagnetic resonance; Oxidative phosphorylation; Proliferation.