Glycolytic enzymes in human breast carcinoma cytosols: the influence of commonly used reference parameters.

The activities of selected glycolytic enzymes in breast tumor tissues were examined based on earlier studies showing a relationship between therapy and/or prognosis of breast cancer and tissue enzyme. In the present study, five glycolytic enzymatic activities (pyruvate kinase [PK], glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [G6PD], phosphohexose-isomerase [PHI], lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], and 6-phospho-glucocate dehydrogenase [6PGD]) were measured in the cytosol (105,000 g) of 57 breast carcinomas and 22 benign breast lesions. Nucleic acids and DNA were also determined. The results were related to the wet weight of the tissue, to total and tissue cytosol proteins, and to DNA. The various means of expressing the results were compared. The correlations were satisfactory except for PHI and LDH. In these cases, this might have been due to blood contamination. The enzyme activities content was lower in the benign breast lesions than in the breast carcinomas irrespective of the way the results were expressed.