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The metabolic patterns of the brain, muscle, adipose tissue, kidney, and liver are strikingly different. Let us consider how these organs differ in their use of fuels to meet their energy needs:
Brain. Glucose is virtually the sole fuel for the human brain, except during prolonged starvation. The brain lacks fuel stores and hence requires a continuous supply of glucose. It consumes about 120 g daily, which corresponds to an energy input of about 420 kcal (1760 kJ), accounting for some 60% of the utilization of glucose by the whole body in the resting state. Much of the energy, estimates suggest from 60% to 70%, is used to power transport mechanisms that maintain the Na+-K+ membrane potential required for the transmission of the nerve impulses. The brain must also synthesize neurotransmitters and their receptors to propagate nerve impulses. Overall, glucose metabolism remains unchanged during mental activity, although local increases are detected when a subject performs certain tasks.
Glucose is transported into brain cells by the glucose transporter GLUT3. This transporter has a low value of KM for glucose (1.6 mM), which means that it is saturated under most conditions. Thus, the brain is usually provided with a constant supply of glucose. Noninvasive 13C nuclear magnetic resonance measurements have shown that the concentration of glucose in the brain is about 1 mM when the plasma level is 4.7 mM (84.7 mg/dl), a normal value. Glycolysis slows down when the glucose level approaches the KM value of hexokinase (~50 μM), the enzyme that traps glucose in the cell (Section 16.1.1). This danger point is reached when the plasma-glucose level drops below about 2.2 mM (39.6 mg/dl) and thus approaches the KM value of GLUT3.
Fatty acids do not serve as fuel for the brain, because they are bound to albumin in plasma and so do not traverse the blood-brain barrier. In starvation, ketone bodies generated by the liver partly replace glucose as fuel for the brain.
| Available energy in kcal (kJ) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Organ | Glucose or glycogen | Triacylglycerols | Mobilizable proteins |
| Blood | 60 (250) | 45 (200) | 0 (0) |
| Liver | 400 (1700) | 450 (2000) | 400 (1700) |
| Brain | 8 (30) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Muscle | 1,200 (5000) | 450 (2000) | 24,000 (100,000) |
| Adipose tissue | 80 (330) | 135,000 (560,000) | 40 (170) |
Source: After G. F. Cahill, Jr. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 5(1976):398.
In actively contracting skeletal muscle, the rate of glycolysis far exceeds that of the citric acid cycle, and much of the pyruvate formed is reduced to lactate, some of which flows to the liver, where it is converted into glucose (Figure 30.12
).
These interchanges, known as the Cori cycle (Section 16.4.2), shift part of the metabolic burden of muscle to the liver. In addition, a large amount of alanine is formed in active muscle by the transamination of pyruvate. Alanine, like lactate, can be converted into glucose by the liver. Why does the muscle release alanine? Muscle can absorb and transaminate branched-chain amino acids; however, it cannot form urea. Consequently, the nitrogen is released into the blood as alanine. The liver absorbs the alanine, removes the nitrogen for disposal as urea, and processes the pyruvate to glucose or fatty acids. The metabolic pattern of resting muscle is quite different. In resting muscle, fatty acids are the major fuel, meeting 85% of the energy needs.
Unlike skeletal muscle, heart muscle functions almost exclusively aerobically, as evidenced by the density of mitochondria in heart muscle. Moreover, the heart has virtually no glycogen reserves. Fatty acids are the heart's main source of fuel, although ketone bodies as well as lactate can serve as fuel for heart muscle. In fact, heart muscle consumes acetoacetate in preference to glucose.
Fatty acids are delivered to adipose cells in the form of triacylglycerols contained in very low density lipoproteins (VLDLs).
).
Triacylglycerols are hydrolyzed to fatty acids and glycerol by intracellular lipases. The release of the first fatty acid from a triacylglycerol, the rate-limiting step, is catalyzed by a hormone-sensitive lipase that is reversibly phosphorylated. The hormone epinephrine stimulates the formation of cyclic AMP, the intracellular messenger in the amplifying cascade, which activates a protein kinase—a recurring theme in hormone action. Triacylglycerols in adipose cells are continually being hydrolyzed and resynthesized. Glycerol derived from their hydrolysis is exported to the liver. Most of the fatty acids formed on hydrolysis are reesterified if glycerol 3-phosphate is abundant. In contrast, they are released into the plasma if glycerol 3-phosphate is scarce because of a paucity of glucose. Thus, the glucose level inside adipose cells is a major factor in determining whether fatty acids are released into the blood.
The kidney. The major purpose of the kidney is to produce urine, which serves as a vehicle for excreting metabolic waste products and for maintaining the osmolarity of the body fluids. The blood plasma is filtered nearly 60 times each day in the renal tubules. Most of the material filtered out of the blood is reabsorbed; so only 1 to 2 liters of urine is produced. Water-soluble materials in the plasma, such as glucose, and water itself are reabsorbed to prevent wasteful loss. The kidneys require large amounts of energy to accomplish the reabsorption. Although constituting only 0.5% of body mass, kidneys consume 10% of the oxygen used in cellular respiration. Much of the glucose that is reabsorbed is carried into the kidney cells by the sodium-glucose cotransporter. Recall that this transporter is powered by the Na+-K+ gradient, which is itself maintained by the Na+-K+ ATPase (Section 13.4). During starvation, the kidney becomes an important site of gluconeogenesis and may contribute as much as half of the blood glucose.
The liver plays an essential role in the integration of metabolism. [Courtesy of Dr. Ann Hubbard.]
). Most compounds absorbed by the intestine first pass through the liver, which is thus able to regulate the level of many metabolites in the blood.
Let us first consider how the liver metabolizes carbohydrates. The liver removes two-thirds of the glucose from the blood and all of the remaining monosaccharides. Some glucose is left in the blood for use by other tissues. The absorbed glucose is converted into glucose 6-phosphate by hexokinase and the liver-specific glucokinase. Glucose 6-phosphate, as already stated, has a variety of fates, although the liver uses little of it to meet its own energy needs. Much of the glucose 6-phosphate is converted into glycogen. As much as 400 kcal (1700 kJ) can be stored in this form in the liver. Excess glucose 6-phosphate is metabolized to acetyl CoA, which is used to form fatty acids, cholesterol, and bile salts. The pentose phosphate pathway, another means of processing glucose 6-phosphate, supplies the NADPH for these reductive biosyntheses. The liver can produce glucose for release into the blood by breaking down its store of glycogen and by carrying out gluconeogenesis. The main precursors for gluconeogenesis are lactate and alanine from muscle, glycerol from adipose tissue, and glucogenic amino acids from the diet.
The electron micrograph shows the release of insulin from a pancreatic β cell. One secretory granule is on the verge of fusing with the plasma membrane and releasing insulin into the extracellular space, and the other has already released the hormone. [Courtesy of Dr. Lelio Orci. L. Orci, J.-D. Vassalli, and A. Perrelet. Sci. Am. 259 (September 1988):85–94.]
). However, in the fasting state, the liver converts fatty acids into ketone bodies. How is the fate of liver fatty acids determined? The selection is made according to whether the fatty acids enter the mitochondrial matrix. Recall that long-chain fatty acids traverse the inner mitochondrial membrane only if they are esterified to carnitine. Carnitine acyltransferase I (also known as carnitine palmitoyl transferase I), which catalyzes the formation of acyl carnitine, is inhibited by malonyl CoA, the committed intermediate in the synthesis of fatty acids (see Figure 30.9). Thus, when malonyl CoA is abundant, long-chain fatty acids are prevented from entering the mitochondrial matrix, the compartment of β-oxidation and ketone-body formation. Instead, fatty acids are exported to adipose tissue for incorporation into triacylglycerols. In contrast, the level of malonyl CoA is low when fuels are scarce. Under these conditions, fatty acids liberated from adipose tissues enter the mitochondrial matrix for conversion into ketone bodies.
The liver also plays an essential role in dietary amino acid metabolism. The liver absorbs the majority of amino acids, leaving some in the blood for peripheral tissues. The priority use of amino acids is for protein synthesis rather than catabolism. By what means are amino acids directed to protein synthesis in preference to use as a fuel? The KM value for the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases is lower than that of the enzymes taking part in amino acid catabolism. Thus, amino acids are used to synthesize aminoacyl-tRNAs before they are catabolized. When catabolism does take place, the first step is the removal of nitrogen, which is subsequently processed to urea. The liver secretes from 20 to 30 g of urea a day. The α-ketoacids are then used for gluconeogenesis or fatty acid synthesis. Interestingly, the liver cannot remove nitrogen from the branch-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine). Transamination takes place in the muscle.
How does the liver meet its own energy needs? α-Ketoacids derived from the degradation of amino acids are the liver's own fuel. In fact, the main role of glycolysis in the liver is to form building blocks for biosyntheses. Furthermore, the liver cannot use acetoacetate as a fuel, because it has little of the transferase needed for acetoacetate's activation to acetyl CoA. Thus, the liver eschews the fuels that it exports to muscle and the brain.
