Simulations of tumor tissue including fluctuating blood flow, diffusion and tumor cell metabolism
Abstract
Background: Tumor cells show the Warburg effect: high glucose uptake and lactate production despite sufficient oxygen supply. Otto Warburg found this effect in tissue slices and in suspensions of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. Remarkably, these ascites tumor cells can transiently take up glucose an order of magnitude faster than the steady high rate measured by Warburg for hours. Methods: The purpose of the transiently very high glucose uptake is investigated here with a computational model of glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation and ATP consumption which reproduces short kinetic experiments on the ascites tumor cells as well as the long-lasting Warburg, Crabtree and Pasteur effects. The model, extended with equations for glucose and O 2 transport in tissue, is subsequently used to predict metabolism in tumor cells during fluctuations of tissue blood flow resulting in cycling hypoxia. Results: The model analysis suggests that the head section of the glycolytic chain in the tumor cells is partially inhibited in about a minute when substantial amounts of glucose have been taken up intracellularly; this head section of the glycolytic chain is subsequently disinhibited slowly when concentrations of glycolytic intermediates are low. Based on these dynamic characteristics, simulations of tissue with fluctuating O 2 and glucose supply predict that tumor cells greedily take up glucose when this periodically becomes available, leaving very little for other cells. The glucose is stored…
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