Metabolic adaptation during erythropoietin-mediated terminal differentiation of mouse erythroid cells

Metabolic development was examined in erythroid precursor cells, which were isolated from the spleens of mice infected with the anemia-inducing strain of Friend virus (FVA cells). FVA cells undergo differentiation in vitro from the proerythroblast stage through the reticulocyte stage over a 48-hour period in the presence of erythropoietin. Concomitant with marked decreases in cellular size and energy demand, metabolic capacities of both glycolysis and oxygen consumption diminish after 48 hours in culture by 7- and 18-fold, respectively. Because the oxidative capacity decreases more than glycolytic ability does, the metabolic machinery increasingly shifts toward anaerobic metabolism. During the 48-hour period of differentiation, the 2,3-diphosphoglyceric acid (DPG) content per cell and 2,3-DPG mutase activity per cell increased eightfold and threefold, respectively. Freshly harvested FVA cells have adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels of 7.23 +/- 2.52 mumol/10(10) cells or 3.76 +/- 1.31 mumol/mL cell water which are 12- or 2.3-fold higher, respectively, than the ATP levels of mature red blood cells. In the course of FVA cell differentiation, ATP content per cell decreases by fourfold, but ATP concentration in cell water remains unchanged because of a corresponding decrease in cellular size and water content during differentiation. These studies show that in the face of dramatic decreases in cell size and cellular energy demand, terminally differentiating erythroid cells maintain a constant ATP level by undergoing an involution of their glycolytic machinery as well as by losing their aerobic metabolic capacity.