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Warburg effect

Warburg effect noun: the observation that most cancer cells release energy predominantly not through the 'usual' citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria as observed in normal cells, but through a less efficient process of 'anaerobic glycolysis' consisting of a high level of glucose uptake and glycolysis followed by lactic acid fermentation taking place in the cytosol, not the mitochondria, even in the presence of abundant oxygen.

Noun

Warburg effect (plural Warburg effects)

  1. The observation that most cancer cells release energy predominantly not through the 'usual' citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria as observed in normal cells, but through a less efficient process of 'anaerobic glycolysis' consisting of a high level of glucose uptake and glycolysis followed by lactic acid fermentation taking place in the cytosol, not the mitochondria, even in the presence of abundant oxygen.

Forms of Warburg effect

pluralWarburg effects

Origin of Warburg effect

Named after Otto Heinrich Warburg who first published the observation.

Questions about Warburg effect

What does Warburg effect mean?
Warburg effect means the observation that most cancer cells release energy predominantly not through the 'usual' citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria as observed in normal cells, but through a less efficient process of 'anaerobic glycolysis' consisting of a high level of glucose uptake and glycolysis followed by lactic acid fermentation taking place in the cytosol, not the mitochondria, even in the presence of abundant oxygen.
What part of speech is Warburg effect?
Warburg effect is a noun.
What is the plural of Warburg effect?
The plural of Warburg effect is Warburg effects.

Words near Warburg effect in the dictionary

  1. Warboys
  2. Warboyses
  3. Warbreck
  4. warbs
  5. Warburg
  6. Warburg effect
  7. Warburg effects
  8. Warburg micro syndrome
  9. Warburg syndrome
  10. Warburg's tincture
  11. warburganal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Warburg effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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