Studies on the relationship between glycolysis and (Na+ + K+)-ATPase in cultured cells.

In several tissues a coupling between glycolysis and (Na+ + K+)-ATPase has been observed. We report here studies on the coupling of glycolysis and (Na+ + K+)-ATPase in Rous-transformed hamster cells and Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. The rate of (Na+ + K+)-ATPase was estimated by the initial rate of ouabain-sensitive K+ influx after K+ reintroduction to K+-depleted cells. Experiments were performed with cells producing ATP via oxidative phosphorylation alone (i.e., lactate sole substrate), glycolysis alone (i.e., glucose as substrate in the absence of oxygen or with antimycin A), or glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (i.e., glucose as substrate in the presence of oxygen). The cells produced ATP at approximately the same rate under all of these conditions, but the initial rate of K+-influx was approx. 2-fold higher when AtP was produced from glycolysis. Changes in cell Na+ due to other transport processes related to glycolysis, such as Na+-H+ exchange, Na+-glucose cotransport, and K+-H+ exchange were ruled out as mediators of this effect on (Na+ + K+)-ATPase. These data suggest that glycolysis is more effective than oxidative phosphorylation in providing ATP to (Na+ + K+)-ATPase to these cultured cells.