Acetate metabolism in cancer cells

Macromolecule biosynthesis is required to duplicate cell components and support proliferation. Studies examining the nutrients used by cancer cells have focused on the contribution of glucose and glutamine carbon for biosynthesis, but the importance of other metabolic fuels is becoming apparent. Lab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hosios, Aaron M, Vander Heiden, Matthew G.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central Ltd 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92358
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6702-4192
Description
Summary:Macromolecule biosynthesis is required to duplicate cell components and support proliferation. Studies examining the nutrients used by cancer cells have focused on the contribution of glucose and glutamine carbon for biosynthesis, but the importance of other metabolic fuels is becoming apparent. Labeling of two-carbon units in newly synthesized lipids has been used to infer the nutrients that contribute to the acetyl-CoA pools in cells. Glucose- and glutamine-derived carbon are known to contribute extensively to de novo lipid biosynthesis, and in this issue Kamphorst et al. find that extracellular acetate can also contribute substantially to this process [1].