title: The human hair follicle engages in glutaminolysis and aerobic glycolysis: implications for skin, splanchnic and neoplastic metabolism.
abstract: On maintenance in supplemented Williams E medium, human hair follicles grow at the normal rate, and retain their normal anagen morphology, for up to 10 days. This permits us to study their metabolism under near-physiological conditions. The ATP content of freshly isolated follicles was 124.4 +/- 10.6 pmol/follicle (mean +/- SEM; n = 50). The energy charge was 0.81 +/- 0.08 and the glycogen content 2.3 +/- 0.3 nmol/follicle. These did not alter significantly during any metabolic studies, which were performed for up to 6 h in supplemented Williams E medium. We found that the major fuel was glucose, which at physiological concentrations yields 5.47 +/- 0.77 nmol ATP/follicle/h, but 90% of the glucose was metabolised to lactate, and only 10% oxidised. Glutamine was also an important fuel, generating 2.16 +/- 0.33 nmol ATP/follicle/h, but this too was largely metabolised to lactate rather than oxidised. Lipid fuels such as palmitate or beta-hydroxybutyrate only yielded 0.72 +/- 0.15 and 0.72 +/- 0.14 nmol ATP/follicle/h, respectively, and their oxidation did not inhibit glucose utilisation. No glucose-fatty acid cycle operates in the hair follicle, therefore, but a glucose-glutamine cycle does, since the presence of glutamine will inhibit glucose utilisation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Cambridge University, Addenbrooke's Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kealey
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Philpott
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000332:Aerobiosis; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D006019:Glycolysis / Q000502:physiology*; D006197:Hair / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D014781:Viscera / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D005973:Glutamine; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate