Stimulation of glycolysis by placental polypeptides and inhibition by duramycin.

Placental polypeptides present in crude preparations of transforming growth factors stimulate glycolysis when added to quiescent 3T3 cells, normal rat kidney, and chick embryo fibroblasts. The stimulation was apparent over a time period of at least 90 min and was seen at glucose concentrations ranging from 1 to 30 mM. Duramycin, an antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces cinnamomeus, inhibits the polypeptide-stimulated and nonstimulated glycolysis of intact cells, since it permeabilizes cells to Pi and nucleotides. However, duramycin also inhibits the Na+-K+-ATPase as well as the ouabain-insensitive Mg2+-ATPase of plasma membranes. Duramycin has no effect on glycolysis catalyzed by cell-free extracts of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells in the presence of mitochondrial ATPase but partially inhibits glycolysis when ADP and Pi are generated by ATPases of plasma membrane preparations.