Metabolic products in pigeon tissues after feeding glucose

Abstract

[14C6]Glucose was given orally to pigeons. After 3 h, the state—other than glycogen or fatty acids—in which radioactive carbon was present in the tissues was investigated.

Nearly all the radioactive material could be extracted with 5% trichloroacetic acid. Most of the label thus extracted was recovered in 10 compounds: glucose; fructose diphosphate, glucose 6-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate; alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid and lactic acid. The distribution of the label over these compounds varied considerably in the tissues examined (liver, heart, breast muscle and the remainder of the pigeon).

It appears that a considerable part of the ingested glucose carbon is still in intermediates after 3 h, and not yet in end-products of metabolism.