The Role of Glycolysis in the Growth of Tumor Cells. Iv. the Basis of Glucose Toxicity in Oxamate-treated, Cultured Cells.

During the course of experiments designed to establish the site of action of oxamate on HeLa cell growth (I), we found that the oxamate inhibition of growth was greatly intensified by the presence of glucose. This has now been observed in two different types of experiments. Under conditions during which growth is not dependent on added hexose (l), the growth is much more severely inhibited by oxamate when glucose is present. Where a hexose is required for growth, oxamate inhibits growth strongly when glucose is used but not at all when galactose is used. In this paper, we will try to elucidate the mechanism of this glucose toxicity.