THE METABOLISM OF VARIOUSLY LABELLED GLUCOSE IN FATTY LIVERS FROM MICE WITH CONGENITAL HYPERGLYCAEMIA AND OBESITAS

Abstract

ABSTRACT The in vitro utilization in liver slices of 14C-glucose, labelled in the C1 or C6 positions, was studied in mice of the American variety of the hereditary obese-hyperglycaemic syndrome. Those obese-hyperglycaemic animals (AO-mice), which exhibited a macroscopically obvious fatty liver (liver fat content 32.6 ± 2.7 %), were compared with lean normoglycaemic litter mates (AN-mice) (liver fat content 15.7 ± 0.9%). The incorporation of glucose into all the fractions of the livers analysed tended to be lower in the AO-mice. Thus after incubation in 14C6-glucose the CO2 was significantly lower (P < 0.001), while for lipids, the corresponding difference was only probable (P < 0.05). For the insoluble residue after extraction with trichloracetic acid and alcohol-ether the difference was significant at the 1 % level for 14C1-glucose and at the 0.1 % level for 14C6-glucose. Only with CO2 was there a difference between AO- and AN-mice (lower in the AO-mice; significant at the 5 % level) for the ratios of the radioactivities derived from the glucose labelled in the C6 and C1 positions.