The Effect of Fatty Acids upon Tumor Cell Respiration and Transplantability
Abstract The kinetic effect of palmitate, stearate, oleate, linoleate, and linolenate upon in vitro endogenous respiration of rat chloromyeloid leukemic cells has been investigated. Inhibition of respiration has been correlated with the ability of fatty acids to cause decreased cell viability and cell count; in the bioassay of fatty acid-treated tumor inocula, the increase in animal life span is correlated to the degree of dilution of the inocula due to cell lysis. The degree of lysis is dependent upon the chemical structure of the fatty acid, concentration, and duration of contact; unsaturated fatty acids are more effective than saturated fatty acids. Tumor cells, when incubated at low concentrations of fatty acids, show stimulation of O2 uptake; however, in the bioassay these fatty acid-treated inocula showed no loss in tumor activity. The nature of the physiochemical interaction between fatty acids and tumor cells is discussed.