Darkthorn’s Blog

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Five possible fates for glucose 6-phosphate in the liver are:

1. being oxidised via glycolysis, the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, citric acid cycle and electron transfer chain to provide energy for the liver

2. being stored in the liver after being converted to glycogen

3. being phosphorylated and exported into the bloodstream to maintain blood glucose levels.

4. being degraded into acetyl-CoA, and then converted to a fatty acid which can be used in the synthesis of lipids

5. entering the pentose phosphate pathway in order to produce NADPH (for lipid synthesis) and ribose-5-phosphate (precursor for nucleotide synthsis)

Five possible fates for fatty acids in the liver are:

1. being oxidised in B-oxidation, citric acid cycle and electron transfer chain to synthesise energy for the liver

2. after oxidation to produce acetyl-CoA, excess acetyl-CoA is converted to ketone bodies which can be used by other organs as fuel

3. after oxidation to produce acetyl-CoA, the acetyl-CoA is used to synthesise cholesterol (important in cell membranes, and the synthesis of steroid hormones and bile salts)

4. conversion to other types of lipids required by the liver

5. conversion to triacylglycerols and exported into the bloodstream as lipoproteins. The lipoproteins are then transported to the adipose tissue where the triacylglycerols are reformed and stored

Four possible fates for amino acids in the liver are:

1. use for synthesis of proteins required by the liver, and also blood plasma protein production

2. exported to other organs where they are used to synthesise tissue proteins

3. oxidation to provide energy, and the products are then fed into the citric acid cycle. Pyruvate and citric acid cycle intermediates (from glucogenic amino acids) can be used to synthesise glucose

4. use of acetyl-CoA derived from ketogenic amino acids to synthesise fatty acids (that are then used to form lipids for energy storage)