The Distribution of Acid-Soluble Phosphorous Compounds in Tumor Tissue

Abstract

The presence of organic acid-soluble phosphorous compounds in blood and tissues has been recognized for a long time but the identification of some of these compounds and suggestions as to their possible role in cell metabolism are of comparatively recent date. Hexosephosphoric acid esters have been isolated from yeast (1) and from muscle tissue (2). Meyerhof (3) in his investigation of the glycolytic enzyme of muscle found that the esterification of glucose and phosphoric acid is a step in the formation of lactic acid. The glycolytic activity of tumor tissue is well known since the work of Warburg (4) but the actual mechanism involved in the splitting of glucose into lactic acid is not clear. It has not been settled with certainty whether or not an esterification of glucose precedes lactic acid formation in tumor tissue. Barr, Ronzoni and Glaser (5) reached the conclusion that phosphates are not involved in the glycolysis of tumor tissue. If this were the case, the lactic acid formation in malignant tissue would not only be quantatively but also qualitatively different from that in muscle tissue. Recent work on muscle tissue has led to the identification of several other organic acid-soluble phosphorous compounds. Fiske and Subbarow (6) isolated phosphocreatine, a compound which is intimately connected with muscle contraction. Lohmann (7) identified pyrophosphoric acid in muscle. He suggested that this compound is in combination with adenine nucleotide.