Glucose and pyruvate metabolism in liver slices of chronically uremic rats

¹ Department of Biological Chemistry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

The pathways of glucose and pyruvate metabolism in the liver of the chronically uremic rat were measured in vitro. Chronic uremia was produced in rats by an operative method preceding the experiments by 2–8 months. One gram of liver slices per flask was incubated for 90 minutes at 37°C in a high-potassium medium containing either uniformly labeled glucose-C¹⁴ or pyruvate-2-C¹⁴ as a substrate. Determinations of blood urea nitrogen and blood glucose, liver glycogen, lactic acid, and of C¹⁴ incorporation into carbon dioxide, fatty acids, medium glucose and glycogen were compared in liver slices from uremic and littermate control rats. No statistically significant difference in glucose or pyruvate metabolism as evaluated by these methods was found between the control and the uremic rats' liver slices. Contrary to data reported by other workers, no defect in hepatic glycogen metabolism was found. This discrepancy is attributed by the authors to the fact that other workers have studied their uremic animals within 12–36 hours after the anesthesia and surgery required to induce experimental uremia.