Metabolic rates and intercellular transfer of molecules in cultures of human glia and glioma cells.

Metabolic rates and intercellular transfer of metabolites were studied in human glia and glioma culture cells via topographic scan of NAD(P)H fluorescence by multichannel microfluorometry in conjunction with microinjection of glucose-6-P + allosteric activators. Metabolic rates evaluated from NAD(P) in equilibrium NAD(P)H transients and the required substrate levels were 3--4 times lower in glioma cells as compared to glia cells. Both glia and glioma cells showed variability in the occurrence of intercellular metabolite transfer, detectable via observation of a transient in a neighbour of the cell injected with substrate. On this basis "multicellular integrated states" can be defined in clusters of glioma and glia cells interconnected by cell-to-cell contact and a mesh-like network of intercellular processes. Such multicellular steady states and the associated metabolic rates or their impairment can be used in turn to classify different culture lines in reference to cell physiology and pathology.