Year: 1991
Type: report
Abstract: The goal of this work is to investigate the potential for and limitations of in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for quantitation of glucose flux through the pentose phosphate pathway (shunt). Interest in the shunt is motivated by the possibility that its activity may be greatly increased in cancer and in the pathological states of cardiac and cerebral ischemia. The ability to dynamically monitor flux through the pentose shunt can give new knowledge about metabolism in pathological states. 13C NMR spectroscopy was used to monitor shunt activity by determination of the ratios of [13C-4] to [13C-5]-glutamate, [13C-3] to [13C-2]-alanine or [13C-3] to [13C-2]-lactate produced when [13C-2]-glucose is infused. These methods provide measures of the effect of oxidative stresses on shunt activity in systems ranging from cell free enzyme-substrate preparations to cell suspensions and whole animals. In anaerobic cell free preparations, the fraction of glucose flux through the shunt was monitored with a time resolution of 3 minutes. This work predicts the potential for in vivo human studies of pentose phosphate pathway activity based on the mathematical simulation of the 13C fractional enrichments of C4 and C5-glutamate as a function of shunt activity and on the signal-to- noise ratio acquired in 13C NMR human studies from the current literature.
DOI: 10.2172/10133997
Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Language: English
Subfield: Spectroscopy
Field: Chemistry
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4245856873