QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Madvig, P. Articles by Abraham, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Madvig, P. Articles by Abraham, S.

Relationship of Malic Enzyme Activity to Fatty Acid Synthesis and the Pathways of Glucose Catabolism in Developing Rat Liver¹

Bruce Lyon Memorial Research Laboratory, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 51st and Grove Sts, Oakland, CA 94609

The rates of fatty acid synthesis and the activity of several enzymes involved in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism were determined in livers from fetal, suckling, weanling and maternal rats. An estimate of the proportion of glucose catabolized via the pentose phosphate cycle and the Embden-Meyerhoff pathway was made using ¹⁴C- and ³H-labeled glucose. The contribution of pentose phosphate cycle-generated reducing equivalents to fatty acid synthesis was assessed using glucose-3-³H. Developmental changes in the activity of hepatic malic enzyme were not related to developmental changes in the rate of fatty acid synthesis as might be expected if this enzyme functioned to provide NADPH for fatty acid synthesis. Malic enzyme activity did not correlate with pentose phosphate cycle activity or with utilization for fatty acid synthesis of NADPH generated via this pathway.

KEY WORDS: • malic enzyme • glucose catabolism • liver • rat

¹ This work was supported by Grant No. CA 11736 from the National Cancer Institute and Biomedical Research Support Grant No. RR 05467 from the National Institutes of Health, DHEW.

² To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 27 April 1979.