Glycolytic pathway, hypoxic conditions

Figures 4 and 5 illustrates the use of NMR spectroscopy to study the metabolism of (l-i C)glu-cose in primary cultures of neurons and astrocytes. A simplified scheme of the metabolism of (l-i C)glu-cose in neural cells is given in Figure 4. Briefly, (1-i C)glucose is metabolized to (3- C)pyruvate through the Embden Meyerhoff glycolytic pathway. The (3-i C)pyruvate produced can be transaminated to (3- C)alanine, reduced to (3-i C)lactate or enter the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle through the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) or pyruvate carboxylase (PC) activities. A net increase in (3-i C)lactate reveals increased aerobic glycolysis and is normally observed under hypoxic conditions in normal cells. If (3-i C)pyruvate enters the TCA cycle though PDH it produces (2-i C)acetyl-coenzyme A first, and subsequently (4-i C)a-ketoglutarate. In contrast, if (3-i C)pyruvate is carboxylated to (3-i C)oxalacetate by...

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