ArticleMolecular cell2023
Lactate activates the mitochondrial electron transport chain independently of its metabolism.
Article in Molecular cell, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 155 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
155 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 187 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanistic pathways linking gut microbial metabolites, microbial structural products, and host-microbe co-metabolites to mitochondrial function.Gut microbes · 2026Pooled it
- Pathophysiological mechanisms of post-exertional malaise: an integrative analysis based on the metabolism-immune-neuro interaction model.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Mitochondrial mechanisms underlying spatial immune phenotypes in non‑small cell lung cancer: Implications for ICI response and cold‑to‑hot tumor conversion (Review).Oncology reports · 2026Review
- The lactate-lactylation axis in acute kidney injury: mechanisms from metabolic reprogramming to epigenetic regulation and clinical therapeutic prospects.International urology and nephrology · 2026Review
- Metabolic Flux Analysis Reveals Cell Line-Specific Rewiring in CHO Cells Following TCA Cycle Intermediate Feeding for Bioprocess pH Control.Biotechnology and bioengineering · 2026Article
- Myelin Dynamics at the Axon-Oligodendrocyte Interface: Adaptive Conduction Homeostasis in Demyelination, Remyelination and White Matter Repair.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Malic enzyme 1 senses L-lactate to determine tumor heterogeneity.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- The diversity of terminal electron acceptors across eukaryotes.Trends in biochemical sciences · 2026Review
- LncRMRP drives bladder cancer invasion via a lactylation-driven positive feedback circuit.Oncogene · 2026Article
- TRPA1 deficiency alters brown adipose tissue proteome and thermogenic gene expression during cold exposure in mice.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Article
- Lactate metabolism and protein lactylation in inflammatory and tumor microenvironments.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- GPR81 Regulates MCT1 Membrane Translocation Through a PKA-Dependent Signaling Pathway in Rat Podocytes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Lactobacillus plantarum-derived indole-3-lactic acid inhibits prostate cancer progression through ASF1B/ENO1 axis and remodels the tumor microenvironment to enhance anti-PD-1 therapy.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Article
- Nutritional Status-Based Model for Predicting Low-Lactate Shock: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Shock (Augusta, Ga.) · 2026Article
- Metabolic and developmental rate divergence between serially homologous cells underlies an evolutionary innovation in Drosophila.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- HSP90α lactylation orchestrates PGC1α and LRPGC1 nuclear translocation driving mitochondrial biogenesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Iron overload suppresses LKB1 and induces IL36G anti-tumor immunity in PDAC metastasis.Science advances · 2026Article
- Lactate dynamics in Parkinson's disease: striatal circuit vulnerability, biomarker potential, and therapeutic windows.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Review
- Hypertension Drives Protein Lactylation and Vascular Dysfunction in Skeletal Muscle.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2026Article
- Viral reprogramming of neuronal metabolism captured by label-free imaging in a 3D human brain tissue model.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
95 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Lactate has long been considered a cellular waste product. However, we found that as extracellular lactate accumulates, it also enters the mitochondrial matrix and stimulates mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) activity. The resulting increase in mitochondrial ATP synthesis suppresses glycolysis and increases the utilization of pyruvate and/or alternative respiratory substrates. The ability of lactate to increase oxidative phosphorylation does not depend on its metabolism. Both L- and D-lactate are effective at enhancing ETC activity and suppressing glycolysis. Furthermore, the selective induction of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation by unmetabolized D-lactate reversibly suppressed aerobic glycolysis in both cancer cell lines and proliferating primary cells in an ATP-dependent manner and enabled cell growth on respiratory-dependent bioenergetic substrates. In primary T cells, D-lactate enhanced cell proliferation and effector function. Together, these findings demonstrate that lactate is a critical regulator of the ability of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to suppress glucose fermentation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.