Energy metabolism of non-transformed and benzypyrene-transformed 3T3 cells: a microcalorimetric study

Non-transformed and benzpyrene-transformed 3T3 cells attached to microcarriers were studied with microcalorimetry. The transformed cells manifested a higher rate of heat production and a larger anaerobic contribution to the total catabolism than did the non-transformed cells. Moreover, the transformed cells were characterized by a highly pH-dependent metabolism with a drop in thermal power occurring 0.3 pH units lower than the corresponding drop for the non-transformed cell line. We believe this shift in pH to be due to the higher intracellular pH maintained by the transformed cells. In addition, the study describes the correlation between rate of heat production per cell and the degree of confluency for each cell line, respectively.