Figure 1.

Aerobic Glycolysis-Preference NSCLC Cell Subtype Demonstrates Its Resistance to OXPHOS-Targeting Inhibitors

(A and B) The growth curve of A549 (A) and Hop62 (B) subcutaneous tumors in nude mice with or without metformin treatment (250 mg/kg metformin in A549 group; 300 mg/kg metformin in Hop62 group). The treatment duration was chosen as the tumor volume in the control group reached 300 mm³. Data represent mean and SD. n = 4. (C and D) The anti-proliferative effect of 10 mM metformin (C) and 100 nM rotenone (D) on the ten NSCLC cell lines. The colonies were fixed, stained, and dissolved as described in the Materials and Methods. The graph indicated the total absorbance values at 490 nm in metformin or rotenone treatment groups relative to that in the solvent control group, which were set to 100%. Data represent mean and SD. n = 3. (E) The average basal ECAR and OCR levels of the ten NSCLC cells were measured using a Seahorse XF Analyzer. The two metabolic-preference subtypes were assigned according to the ratio of cellular ECAR to OCR. Cell lines with higher ratio (larger than 0.50) were classified as the aerobic glycolysis-preference subtype; cell lines with lower ratio (smaller than 0.15) were classified as the OXPHOS-preference subtype.