Metabolic reactions of cells in tissue culture: I. Polarographic measurements of endogenous respiration of cells cultured in vitro

Abstract

A rapid and simple polarographic method has been found suitable for measurement of the endogenous O 2 consumption in suspensions of liver cells grown in tissue culture. Because of the great sensitivity of this method, it was possible to detect a rate of respiration of 10 mμmoles of O 2 utilized/10 sec. It was found that the effect of several uncoupling agents and inhibitors on liver tissue culture cells was similar to that reported in studies on liver mitochondria. These findings were best exemplified by the effect of 2,4-dinitrophenol (1·10 −4 M), which increased respiration by a factor of six, and antimycin A (0.05 μg/ml), which inhibited respiration of a 10% cell suspension.