Abstract
To clarify alanine metabolism in the liver with special reference to gluconeogenesis, catheters were placed in hepatic, portal, femoral, and external jugular veins of six male mongrel dogs. A trace amount of14C-alanine was administered as a single pulse into the external jugular vein on the first postoperative day, and the blood samples were taken from each vein for the subsequent two hours to measure14C-glucose radioactivity. Cumulative radioactivity after14C-alanine injection showed that 74 per cent of the radioactivity in whole protein-free serum was that of14C-glucose. Therefore, it is considered that the metabolic pathway of alanine in the liver after surgery is mainly through gluconeogenesis to glucose. Ourin vivo experiment clearly showed that hepatic gluconeogenesis from alanine is one of the important factors related to hyperglycemia after surgery.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aulick, L.H.: Increased peripheral amino acid release following burn injury. Surgery 85: 560–565, 1979.
Duff, J.H., Viidik, T., Marchuk, J.B., Holliday, R.L. and Finley, R.J.: Femoral arteriovenous amino acid differences in septic patients. Surgery 85: 344–348, 1979.
Pozefsky, T., Felig, P., Tobin, J.D., Soeldner, J.S. and Cahill, G.F.Jr.: Amino acid balance across tissues of the forearm in postabsorptive man. Effects of insulin at two dose levels. J. Clin. Invest. 48: 2273–2282, 1969.
Setsu, M., Yoshikawa, K., Katsui, Y., Koyama, S., Muto, T., Shimizu, T. and Fujimoto, M.: Early postoperative amino acids metabolism in muscle tissues. Jpn. J. Surg. Metab. Nutr. 15: 57–64, 1981. (in Japanese with English Abst.)
Exton, J.H. and Park, C.R.: Control of gluconeogenesis in liver. I. General features of gluconeogenesis in the perfused livers of rats. J. Biol. Chem. 242: 2622–2636, 1967.
Nelson, N.: A photometric adaptation of the Somogi Method for the determination of glucose. J. Biol. Chem. 153: 375–380, 1944.
Sladeck, C.D. and Snarr, J.F.: Effect of the amino acid concentration on the rate of gluconeougenesis in liver slices. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 138: 181–185, 1971.
Mallette, L.E., Exton, J.H. and Park, C.R.: Control of gluconeogenesis from amino acids in the perfused rat liver. J. Biol. Chem. 244: 5713–5723, 1969.
Blair, A. and Segal, S.: Laboratory methods. The isolation of blood glucose as potassium gluconate. J. Lab. & Clin. Med. 55: 959–964, 1960.
Yoshikawa, K., Setsu, M., Koyama, S., Matsubara, Y., Fukuda, M., Hatakeyama, K., Aiba, T., Shibata, H., Yamagishi, Y., Yoshikawa, K. and Muto, T.: Analytical investigation on postoperative metabolism of fuel sources. III. Experiment in mongrel dogs using14C-glucose. Jpn. J. Surg. Metab. Nutr. 12: 172–176, 1978. (in Japanese with English Abst.)
Felig, P.: Progress in endocrinology and metabolism, The Glucose-Alanine Cycle Metabolism 22: 179–206, 1973.
Long, C.L., Kinney, J.M. and Geiger, J.W.: Nonsuppressability of gluconeogenesis by glucose in septic patients. Metabolism 25: 193–201, 1976.
Elwyn, D.H., Kinney, J.M., Jeevanandam, M., Gump, F.E. and Broell, J.R.: Influence of carbohydrate intake on glucose kinetics in injured patients. Ann. Surg. 190: 117–127, 1979.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yoshikawa, K., Setsu, M., Mishina, T. et al. Hepatic gluconeogenesis from alanine following surgery. The Japanese Journal of Surgery 12, 286–295 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02469563
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02469563