Glycolytic, glutaminolytic and pentose-phosphate pathways in promyelocytic HL60 and DMSO-differentiated HL60 cells

The human leukaemic cell line HL60 undergoes differentiation to granulocyte-like cells in response to dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO). The rates of glucose and glutamine utilization were studied in HL60 cells that were either undifferentiated or fully differentiated by 9 days exposure to DMSO. Differentiation did not alter the rate of utilization of exogenous glucose, approximately 75% of which was converted to lactate in each case. The activities of hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, pyruvate kinase and citrate synthase were similarly unaffected. In contrast, the activity of the oxidative segment of the pentose-phosphate pathway was enhanced by differentiation, and no glycogen synthase activity could be detected. These observations are consistent with the significantly lower content of glycogen, the increased activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and the increased oxidation of [1-14C] glucose relative to [6-14C] glucose in the differentiated cells. Glucose utilization was depressed by exogenous glutamine but, at the same time, glutamine utilization was enhanced by glucose in both cell types; these reciprocal effects were more pronounced in the undifferentiated HL60 cells. Glucose utilization may be depressed in the presence of glutamine as a result of the allosteric inhibition of a rate-limiting step of glycolysis (eg. phosphofructokinase). In spite of having glutaminase activity twice that of their differentiated counterparts, the uptake of glutamine by undifferentiated HL60 cells was low, especially when it was the sole substrate. The stimulation of glutaminolysis by glucose may be due to activation of mitochondrial glutamine transport. A large proportion of the glutamine utilized by both cells contributed to a net accumulation of glutamate, aspartate and alanine, whilst up to 35% was oxidized to CO2. In contrast, almost all of the glucose utilized was converted to lactate and very little was oxidized. The high rates of glycolysis and glutaminolysis observed before and after differentiation may not contribute primarily to energy production but may supply, in undifferentiated cells, substrates for biosynthetic processes that generate nucleic acid precursors or, in the case of differentiated cells which synthesize reactive oxygen intermediates, substrates that maintain NADP in a reduced state.