Gluconeogenesis conversion

In tissues other than the RBC, pyruvate has alternative metabolic fates that, depending on the tissue, include gluconeogenesis, conversion to acetyl-CoA by pyruvate dehydrogenase for further metabolism to CO in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, transamination to alanine or carboxylation to oxaloacetate by pyruvate carboxylase (Table 23-1). In the RBC, however, the restricted enzymatic endowment precludes all but the conversion to lactate. The pyruvate and lactate produced are end products of RBC glycolysis that are transported out of the RBC to the liver where they can undergo the alternative metabolic conversions described above. 

Between meals when fatty acids are oxidized in the liver for energy, accumulating acetyl CoA activates pyruvate carboxylase and gluconeogenesis and inhibits PDH, thus preventing conversion of lactate and alanine to acetyl CoA. 

Figure 8.13 The central role of transdeamination in metabolism of amino adds and further metabolism of the oxoacids in the liver. The box contains the reactions for conversion of the amino acids to their respective oxoacids. Processes are as follows (1) digestion of protein in the intestine and absorption of resultant amino acids, (2) degradation of endogenous protein to amino acids (primarily but not exclusively muscle protein), (3) protein synthesis, (4) conversion of amino acid to other nitrogen-containing compounds (see Table 8.4), (5) oxidation to CO2, (6) conversion to glucose via gluconeogenesis, (7) conversion to fat.

Figure 6-7. Conversion of mitochondrial pyruvate to cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate to initiate gluconeogenesis. Oxaloacetate cannot pass across the inner mitochondrial membrane, so it is reduced to malate, which can do so.

Figure 6-8. Conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate to glucose during gluconeogenesis. Except for the indicated enzymes that are needed to overcome irreversible steps of glycolysis, all other steps occur by the reverse reactions catalyzed by the same enzymes as those used in glycolysis.

The above-mentioned procedure for the synthesis of C-fructosides has been used to synthesize the bisphosphono analog of / -D-fructose 2,6-bisphos-phate [ 16], which is, as reported in Sect. 2.3, an important activator of glycolysis and inhibitor of gluconeogenesis. To prepare the target molecule we first attempted the conversion of the firee hy iroxyl group of 21 into an iodide which in turn can be easily converted into a phosphonate. However, this conversion... 

There is a logic to the route of these reactions through the mitochondrion. The [NADH]/[NAD+] ratio in the cytosol is 8 X 10 4, about 105 times lower than in mitochondria. Because cytosolic NADH is consumed in gluconeogenesis (in the conversion of 1,3-bisphos-... 

If glycolysis (the conversion of glucose to pyruvate) and gluconeogenesis (the conversion of pyruvate to glucose) were allowed to proceed simultaneously at high rates,... 

Because the carbon atoms of acetate molecules that enter the citric acid cycle appear eight steps later in oxaloacetate, it might seem that this pathway could generate oxaloacetate from acetate and thus generate phosphoenolpyruvate for gluconeogenesis. However, as an examination of the stoichiometry of the citric acid cycle shows, there is no net conversion of acetate to ox-... 

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