Respiration and Glycolysis of Normal Human Lymphocytes

The metabolism of intact, normal, human lymphocytes in vitro was studiedfrom a total of 80 subjects. Corrected for the metabolism of contaminating redblood cells, the glucose uptake, lactic acid production, and oxygen consumption were 62, 95, and 117 µmoles per 10¹⁰ lymphocytes per hour, respectively,provided the cells were incubated at concentrations greater than 40 x 10⁶lymphocytes per ml. At lower lymphocyte concentrations the oxygen consumption per lymphocyte rose steeply with decreasing cell concentration (crowdingeffect). A similar but weaker crowding effect was noted for the lactic acidproduction, but not for the utilization of glucose.

The oxygen uptake was lower with 20 per cent than with 100 per centoxygen as gas phase. Small Pasteur and Crabtree effects were demonstrated.The oxygen consumption and lactic acid production proceeded linear withtime, while the glucose utilization was higher during the first 30 minutes ofincubation than later on.

It is concluded that lymphocytes have a low aerobic glycolysis accountingfor 75 per cent of the glucose utilization. The respiration is severely inhibitedat high cell concentrations and it is suggested that this is caused by an insufficient availability of oxygen to the cells.

Submitted on September 24, 1965 Accepted on November 24, 1965