Mammary gland pentose phosphate pathway

In hepatocytes and adipocytes, cytosolic NADPH is largely generated by the pentose phosphate pathway (see Fig. 14-21) and by malic enzyme (Fig. 21-9a). The NADP-linked malic enzyme that operates in the carbon-assimilation pathway of C4 plants (see Fig. 20-23) is unrelated in function. The pyruvate produced in the reaction shown in Figure 21-9a reenters the mitochondrion. In hepatocytes and in the mammary gland of lactating animals, the NADPH required for fatty acid biosynthesis is supplied primarily by the pentose phosphate pathway (Fig. 21-9b). 

The oxidative portion of the pentose phosphate pathway consists of three reactions that lead to the formation of ribulose 5-phosphate, C02, and two molecules of NADPH for each molecule of glucose 6-phosphate oxidized (Figure 13.2). This portion of the pathway is particularly important in the liver and lactating mammary glands, which are active in the biosynthesis of fatty acids, in the adrenal cortex, which is active in the NADPH-dependent synthesis of steroids, and in erythrocytes, which require NADPH to keep glutathione reduced. 

As a general rule, NAD+ is associated with catabolic reactions and it is somewhat unusual to find NADP+ acting as an oxidant. However, in mammals the enzymes of the pentose phosphate pathway are specific for NADP+. The reason is thought to lie in the need of NADPH for biosynthesis (Section I). On this basis, the occurrence of the pentose phosphate pathway in tissues having an unusually active biosynthetic function (liver and mammary gland) is understandable. 

Some mammalian cells have the ability to metabolize glucose 6-phosphate in a pathway that involves the production of C3, C4, C5, C6, and C7 sugars. This process also yields the reduced coenzyme, NADPH, which is oxidized in the biosynthesis of fatty acids and steroids (Chap. 13). Consequently, this metabolic pathway is of major importance in those cells involved in fatty acid and steroid production, such as the liver, lactating mammary gland, adrenal cortex, and adipose tissue. The pentose phosphate pathway, which does not require oxygen and which occurs in the cytoplasm of these cells, has two other names the phosphogluconate pathway (after the first product in the pathway) and the hexose monophosphate shunt (since the end products of the pathway can reenter glycolysis). 

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