Dependence on exogenous methionine of rat sarcoma and murine leukemia cells in culture.

A comparative study was performed on methionine auxotrophy of rat sarcoma and murine leukemia cells taken directly from the organism and grown in culture in media lacking methionine or in which methionine was substituted by homocysteine. Methionine auxotrophy was observed in both kinds of cells. At low levels of methionine in the media containing homocysteine rat sarcoma cells showed an increase in growth. Addition of homocysteine to the media with low levels of methionine did not influence the survival of murine leukemia cells.