Human Fibroblast Switches to Anaerobic Metabolic Pathway in Response to Serum Starvation: A Mimic of Warburg Effect

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Monireh Golpour 1
Haleh Akhavan Niaki 1
Hamid Reza Khorasani 1
Arian Hajian 2
Roya Mehrasa 3
Amrollah Mostafazadeh 1
1 Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
2 Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
3 Blood Transfusion Research Center, High Institute For Research And Education In Transfusion Medicine, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Fibroblasts could be considered as connective tissue cells that are morphologically heterogeneous with diverse
functions depending on their location and activity. These cells play critical role in health and disease such as
cancer and wound by Production of collagen, fibronectin, cytokines and growth factors. Absence of insulin and
other growth factors in serum deprivation condition and similarity of this condition to the environment of tumor
cells and ulcer made us to investigate anaerobic glycolysis in these cells. To this end, we cultured fibroblasts
isolated from fresh human newborn foreskin in serum free medium for 16, 24, 48 and 72 hrs and measured
glucose consumption, lactate secretion and intracellular LDH in these cells. The results showed despite the lack
of insulin, the 16hr serum starved fibroblasts consumed glucose similar to non-starved fibroblasts control.
Moreover, in this condition these cells secreted higher levels of lactate and exhibited higher levels of
intracellular LDH in comparison to non-starved fibroblasts control. Thus it could be concluded that in serum
starvation condition, the newborn human dermal fibroblasts may change the metabolic strategy to Warburg
effect. This finding opens a new perspective to further understanding the basic mechanisms involved in
communication between tumor cells and fibroblasts.
Keywords
Fibroblast
serum starvation
lactate
warburg effect