Energy metabolism

gluconeogenesis and oxidative phosphorylation

Abstract

Most animal cells are able to meet their energy needs from the oxidation of various types of compounds: sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, but some tissues and cells of our body depend exclusively on glucose and the brain is the largest consumer of all. That is why the body has mechanisms in order to keep glucose levels stable. As it decreases, the degradation of hepatic glycogen occurs, which maintains the appropriate levels of blood glucose allowing its capture continues by those tissues, even in times of absence of food intake. But this reserve is limited, so another metabolic pathway is triggered for glucose production, which occurs in the kidneys and liver and is called gluconeogenesis, which means the synthesis of glucose from non-glucose compounds such as amino acids, lactate, and glycerol. Most stages of glycolysis use the same enzymes as glycolysis, but it makes the opposite sense and differs in three stages or also called deviations: the first is the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate and oxaloacetate to phosphoenolpyruvate. The second deviation is the conversion of fructose 1,6 biphosphate to fructose 6 phosphate and the third and last deviation is the conversion of glucose 6 phosphate to glucose.