Abstract The addiction of most cancer cells to the metabolism of glucose is well established. The metabolism by cancer cells of other saccharides is less well characterized. We have studied the impact of mono- and disaccharides on growth of human bladder and colon cancer cells. Substitution for glucose by other monosaccharides (fructose, galactose and mannose) resulted in similar growth in some cell lines, but growth was greatly diminished in others. HT29 colon cancer cells were the only cell line to have a substantial increased growth with trehalose. In those cell lines in which alkaline phosphatase activity could be induced after incubation with butyrate, induction was observed with any of the saccharides that were examined. For the Caco-2 and HT29 colon cancer cells, co-incubation with 2-deoxyglucose was more inhibitory for growth with fructose than with glucose as substrate. There was a similar situation with some bladder cancer cell lines (5637, HT1197 and RT4) whereas with other bladder cancer cells (HT1376, T24 and UM-UC-3) 2-deoxyglucose caused greater inhibition with glucose. It was apparent that maltose could enhance growth to an extent that was similar to that seen with glucose and was not seen with other disaccharides. The enhanced growth with maltose required maltase activity in serum added to growth medium. In conclusion, the stimulation of growth by saccharides exhibits considerable variability with different molecules.
Keywords: Warburg effect; bladder cancer; colon cancer; monosaccharides; disaccharides; growth