Metabolic substrate utilization by tumour and host tissues in cancer cachexia

Utilization of metabolic substrates in tumour and host tissues was determined in the presence or absence of two colonic tumours, the MAC16, which is capable of inducing cachexia in recipient animals, and the MAC13, which is of the same histological type, but without the effect on host body composition. Glucose utilization by different tissues was determined in vivo by the 2-deoxyglucose tracer technique. Glucose utilization by the MAC13 tumour was significantly higher than by the MAC16 tumour, and in animals bearing tumours of either type the tumour was the second major consumer of glucose after the brain. This extra demand for glucose was accompanied by a marked decrease in glucose utilization by the epididymal fat-pads, testes, colon, spleen, kidney and, in particular, the brain, in tumour-bearing animals irrespective of cachexia. The decrease in glucose consumption by the brain was at least as high as the metabolic demand by the tumour. This suggests that the tissues of tumour-bearing animals adapt to use substrates other than glucose and that alterations in glucose utilization are not responsible for the cachexia. Studies in vitro showed that brain metabolism in the tumour-bearing state was maintained by an increased use of lactate and 3-hydroxybutyrate, accompanied by a 50% increase in 3-oxoacid CoA-transferase. This was supported by studies in vivo which showed an increased metabolism of 3-hydroxybutyrate in tumour-bearing animals. Thus ketone bodies may be utilized as a metabolic fuel during the cancer-bearing state, even though the nutritional conditions mimic the fed state.