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Conversion of Glucose to Lipids by Normal and Leukemic Leukocytes¹

Department of Clinical Therapeutics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Vas. Sofias & K. Lourou Streets, Athens 611, Greece

The lipids of normal leukocytes and of leukocytes from chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), acute leukemia (AL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), labeled in vitro from glucose-U-¹⁴C (uniformly labeled with ¹⁴C) were analyzed by mild alkaline hydrolysis, column chromatography on Florisil, thin-layer chromatography, and autoradiography. Most of the incorporated glucose carbon in both normal and leukemic leukocyte lipids was found in the glycerol moiety of the glycerides. The sphingoglycolipid fraction was labeled with intact hexose, and the fatty acids also contained a low portion of the total radioactivity. The initial rate of incorporation into the total lipids of normal leukocytes was higher than in leukemic leukocytes, whereas the incorporation in the latter was of a longer duration. Thus, after a six-hour incubation, the incorporation into the CML and AL leukocytes was, respectively, two and three times higher than that into the normal leukocytes. Normal leukocytes and leukocytes from AL produced carbon dioxide constantly for 6 hours while leukocytes from CML and CLL produced carbon dioxide for shorter times. The percentage of the total lipid radioactivity incorporated into triglycerides by normal leukocytes was higher than that incorporated by leukemic leukocytes.

The sphingoglycolipid fraction of leukemic leukocytes was found to contain a 10 times higher radioactivity than that of the sphingoglycolipids of normal leukocytes. The presence of cold galactose in the incubation medium produced a small dilution effect on the incorporation of glucose-U-¹⁴C into the lipids of normal leukocytes, whereas in most of the leukemic cases examined it produced a marked decrease of incorporation of glucose-U-¹⁴C into sphingoglycolipids.

¹ This work has been partly supported by NIH Grant No. HE 10421.

Received 1/ 3/67. Accepted 7/ 5/67.