Heat-shock treatment lethal for mammalian cells deprived of glucose and glutamine: protection by alpha-keto acids.

Nil and Nilpy hamster cells exposed to temperatures of 44 degrees C to induce the heat-shock proteins survive such exposure for 2 h or more when incubated in Eagle's Minimum Essential Medium with 10% undialyzed fetal calf serum. If D-glucose and L-glutamine are withdrawn from the medium during heat treatment, nearly all the cells are killed by as little as 20 min at 44 degrees C. Several alpha-keto acids, pyruvate, alpha-ketobutyrate, oxaloacetate, and alpha-ketoglutarate, protect cells from the lethal action of the heat treatment in the absence of D-glucose and L-glutamine. L-Glucose and D-glutamine are without effect. Efforts to reverse lethal effects have not been successful.