Hypoxia in fibroblast cultures. 4. Cell density, glucose utilization and acid mucopolysaccharides in 1% O2 concentration.

Secondary cultures of embryonic rat fibroblasts incubated in Eagle medium with Hepes buffer at pH 6.6 and 7.4 were maintained in hypoxia of 1% O2 for 48 hours. The acid mucopolysaccharides were isolated from medium plus cells and fractionated on cellulose microcolumns according to SVEJCAR and ROBERTSON (1967). Glucose utilization, lactate production, quantity of total MPS and changes in the MPS distribution pattern were correlated with cell density.