ABSTRACT
The number of newly formed lymphocytes is obviously balanced by the decay rate. Tumor cells and certain types of nonmalignant cells including activated lymphocytes and certain types of macrophages exert strong glycolytic activity and release lactate, even under aerobic conditions. The production of lactate by activated lymphocytes has been studied by Wang et al. The production of lactate was found to coincide almost exactly with the proliferative activity and was preceded by the peak of RNA synthetic activity. In order to test the effect of lactate on lymphocyte proliferation, the author incubated concanavalin A-activated splenic T-cell preparations from C3H mice with graded concentrations of lactate and determined DNA synthesis after various time intervals. The production of lactate will always prevent the DNA-synthesis from exceeding a certain maximum threshold. The injection of lactate in vivo was shown to augment the simultaneous in vivo immunization of DBA/2 mice for a subsequent secondary cytotoxic response in vitro against syngeneic tumor cells.
