Hepatic adenosine triphosphate, glucose 6-phosphate, and uridine diphosphoglucose levels in fasted, adrenalectomized, and cortisol-treated rats

Cortisol promotes endoplasmic glucose production via pyridine nucleotide redox

Both increased adrenal and peripheral cortisol production, the latter governed by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1), contribute to the maintenance of fasting blood glucose. In the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the pyridine nucleotide redox state (NADP/NADPH) is dictated by the concentration of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) and the coordinated activities of two enzymes, hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PDH) and 11β-HSD1. However, luminal G6P may similarly serve as a substrate for hepatic glucose-6-phophatase (G6Pase). A tacit belief is that the G6P pool in the ER is equally accessible to both H6PDH and G6Pase. Based on our inhibition studies and kinetic analysis in isolated rat liver microsomes, these two aforesaid luminal enzymes do share the G6P pool in the ER, but not equally. Based on the kinetic modeling of G6P flux, the ER transporter for G6P (T1) preferentially delivers this substrate to G6Pase; hence, the luminal enzymes do not share G6P equally. Moreover, cortisol, acting through 11β-HSD1, begets a more reduced pyridine redox ratio. By altering this luminal redox ratio, G6P flux through H6PDH is restrained, allowing more G6P for the competing enzyme G6Pase. And, at low G6P concentrations in the ER lumen, which occur during fasting, this acute cortisol-induced redox adjustment promotes glucose production. This reproducible cortisol-driven mechanism has been heretofore unrecognized.

An assessment of the importance of intralysosomal and of alpha-amylolytic glycogenolysis in the liver of normal rats and of rats with a glycogen-storage disease

Mechanisms of glycogenolysis have been investigated in a comparative study with Wistar rats and gsd rats, which maintain a high glycogen concentration in the liver as a result of a genetic deficiency of phosphorylase kinase. In Wistar hepatocytes the rate of glycogenolysis, as modulated by glucagon and by glucose, was proportional to the concentration of phosphorylase a. In suspensions of gsd hepatocytes the rate of glycogenolysis was far too high as compared with the low level of phosphorylase a; in addition, only a minor fraction of the glycogen lost was recovered as glucose and lactate, owing to the accumulation of oligosaccharides. When the gsd hepatocytes were incubated in the presence of an inhibitor of alpha-amylase (BAY e 4609) glycogenolysis and the formation of oligosaccharides virtually ceased; the production of glucose plus lactate, already modest in the absence of BAY e 4609, was further decreased by 40%, owing to the suppression of a pathway for glucose production by the successive actions of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. Evidence was obtained that gsd hepatocytes are more fragile, and that amylolysis of glycogen occurred in damaged cells and/or in the extracellular medium. This may even occur in vivo, since quick-frozen liver samples from anesthetized gsd rats contained severalfold higher concentrations of oligosaccharides than did similar samples from Wistar rats. However, administration of a hepatotoxic agent (CCl4) caused hepatic glycogen depletion in Wistar rats, but not in gsd rats. The administration of phloridzin and of vinblastine, which have been proposed to induce glycogenolysis in the lysosomal system, did not decrease the hepatic glycogen level in gsd rats. Taken together, the data indicate that only the phosphorolytic degradation of glycogen is metabolically important, and that alpha-amylolysis is an indication of an increased fragility of gsd hepatocytes, which becomes prominent when these cells are incubated in vitro.

Quantitative histochemical assessment of regional differences in hepatic glucose uptake and release

As a further step in the investigation of the heterogeneity of liver cells in general and regionality of glucose metabolism in particular, requirements for isolation of appropriate tissue samples were defined and procedures for measurement of the biochemical parameters responsible for glucose uptake and release developed and tested. By using enzymatic cycling for chemical amplification, in conjunction with the oil-well technique, sufficient analytical sensitivity was provided to assay samples averaging 20 ng dry weight. Microchemical data on the distribution of glucokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase and of their substrates, glucose and glucose-6-P, were used to, first calculate in vivo rates of these catalytic steps by means of the Michaelis-Menten equation, and then, to determine the direction and rate of net glucose flux, as well as, the rate of substrate cycling between glucose and glucose-6-P. Calculations from the results indicated a reciprocal distribution of in vivo glucokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase velocities, as well as, sex-specific differences. The distribution of in vivo activities results in a spatial separation of these antagonistic steps. Separation is incomplete, but nevertheless appears to lead to regionally different rates in futile substrate cycling. Glucose gradients permit differentiation between net glucose uptake and release and were, therefore, used as a test of the validity of the calculations of in vivo activities. The observed discrepancies between glucose gradients and calculated in vivo enzyme activities illustrate the power of this approach: it provides a way to compare changes in glucose along the sinusoid with what would be predicted from the levels of enzymes which liberate and tie up glucose and of their respective substrates.

Regulation of peripheral insulin/glucagon levels by rat liver

The concentrations of insulin and glucagon were measured in the portal and hepatic vein, the abdominal aorta and caval vein in the rat during a normal 24-h feeding cycle. Portal insulin levels showed little diurnal variation while hepatovenous and peripheral values were clearly increased during the eating phase. Conversely, portal glucagon levels were maximal during the fasting period while hepatovenous and peripheral concentrations showed little diurnal variation. The removal of insulin and glucagon by the liver was not constant, but independently regulated. During meals the liver increased the high portal insulin/glucagon ratio further to an even higher peripheral ratio favouring glucose utilization, e.g. by muscle and adipose tissue. During a short fast the liver decreased the low portal insulin/glucagon ratio further to an even lower peripheral ratio leading to glucose saving, e.g. by muscle and adipose tissue in favour of the brain and erythrocytes. The results indicate that the liver has an important role in the regulation of peripheral insulin/glucagon levels.

On the mechanism by which glucocorticoids cause the activation of glycogen synthase in mouse and rat livers

The administration of glucocorticoids to mice caused within 3 h an inactivation of glycogen phosphorylase and activation of glycogen synthase in their livers. In a Sephadex filtrate of liver extract, as well as in a purified glycogen fraction obtained from treated mice, but not in the same preparations obtained from control mice, glycogen synthase was activated without previous inactivation of phosphorylase. The initial rate of synthase activation in a Sephadex filtrate was proportional to the rate of glycogen synthesis in vivo in the same animal. When the glycogen fraction was isolated in the presence of soluble starch, it could be separated from phosphorylase, phosphorylase phosphatase and synthase phosphatase. When added to a control Sephadex filtrate, this purified glycogen fraction obtained from prednisolone-treated mice relieved synthase phosphatase from inhibition by phosphorylase a, indicating that it contained a transferable 'deinhibiting factor'. This deinhibiting factor appears to be a protein and was further purified by alkyl-Sepharose or DEAE-cellulose chromatography. Another modification introduced by treatment with prednisolone was that phosphorylase phosphatase was 1.5-2-fold more active than in the liver of control mice. This property however did not correlate with the rate of glycogen synthesis in vivo. Administration of actinomycin D prevented the expression of the glucocorticoid effects on the rate of glycogen synthesis in vivo and on the protein phosphatases in vitro. The deinhibition of synthase phosphatase was also observed in isolated rat hepatocytes incubated in the presence of glucocorticoids, but in these preparations synthase was not activated.

The glucose/glucose-6-phosphate cycle in the periportal and perivenous zone of rat liver

Periportal and perivenous hepatocytes contain different activities (V) of antagonistic key enzymes such as glucokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase. In order to get an insight into the metabolism of the periportal and perivenous area the flux rates (v) of the glucose/glucose-6-phosphate cycle were calculated on the basis of the Michaelis-Menten equation using the measured zonal concentrations of glucose and glucose 6-phosphate, the zonal activities of glucokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase previously reported and the half-saturating substrate concentrations (Km) of the two enzymes found in the literature. The concentrations of glucose were obtained as a first approximation by measuring the concentrations in portal (= periportal) and hepatovenous (= perivenous) blood; those of glucose 6-phosphate were calculated from the levels determined in microdissected periportal and perivenous liver tissue. The calculations showed (a) that the overall cycling rates agreed remarkably well with those reported for intact animals and (b) that during a normal feeding rhythm the periportal zone should catalyze net glucose output and the perivenous zone should mediate net glucose uptake, as proposed by the model of 'metabolic zonation'.

Glucocorticoids and hepatic glycogen metabolism

The steady accumulation of glycogen in fetal rat liver during the last fifth of gestation is elicited by a transient rise in the level of circulating corticosterone. One effect of glucocorticoids is to induce glycogen synthase. The actual deposition of glycogen, however, depends on the appearance of a small amount of glycogen synthase in the active, dephosphorylated form. Induction of glycogen synthase phosphatase by glucocorticoids may explain the latter crucial process. Insulin enhances further the rate of glycogen deposition. The effect of insulin requires a previous exposure of the fetal liver to glucocorticoids. It is exerted on the enzyme interconversion system and appears not to involve new protein synthesis. Administration of glucocorticoids to adult fed or fasted animals causes within 3 h an intensive deposition of glycogen in the liver. This phenomenon is ultimately explained by both an activation of glycogen synthase and an inactivation of glycogen phosphorylase. The latter process may be due to an enhanced activity of phosphorylase phosphatase, or possibly of phosphorylase kinase phosphatase. The activation of glycogen synthase is explained by an enhanced activity of glycogen synthase phosphatase. The latter enzyme is normally profoundly inhibited by phosphorylase a; glucocorticoids cause the appearance in the liver of a protein factor that decreases and eventually cancels this inhibitory effect of phosphorylase a. It remains to be established whether or not some part of the glucocorticoid effect on adult liver is mediated by insulin.

Vitamin E and hepatotoxic agents. 1. Carbon tetrachloride and lipid peroxidation in the rat

1. It has been suggested that carbon tetrachloride damages rat liver by accelerating processes of lipid peroxidation at subcellular sites and that the protective action of vitamin E is due to its functioning as an antioxidant in vivo. Direct evidence for these mechanisms in vivo has been sought and is critically examined.

2. The increased production of malondialdehyde by rat liver microsomal fractions during incubation with CCl4 was shown to be a function of the vitamin E status of the rat and of an in vitro reaction, which could not be correlated with the hepatotoxic action of CCI4.

3. Evidence for the production of lipid peroxides by CCl4 in the livers of vitamin E-deficient and vitamin E-supplemented rats was sought (I) by measurement of ultraviolet spectral changes ('diene' formation) and (2) by direct micro-iodimetric determination of the peroxide. No differences in peroxide content were found between CC14-treated and control rats, nor were the spectrophotometric changes in the ultraviolet region related to the presence of vitamin E.

4. The effect of CCI4 (2.0 ml/kg orally) on ATP levels in rat liver was studied at intervals from 3 to 68 h. The primary lesion leading to necrosis and fat accumulation after CCl4 treatment occurred many hours before the eventual slight decline in ATP. Although the levels of ATP were somewhat higher in vitamin E-deficient rats, vitamin E did not prevent the slight decline in ATP that took place. Since ATP is known to be highly sensitive to peroxidation, the results suggest that lipid peroxidation is not the primary event in CCl4 poisoning.

5. The effect of CC14on the metabolism of [14C]D-α-tocopherol in the rat was studied. A single intraperitoneal dose of CCl4 (2.0 m/kg) did not increase the destruction of α-tocopherol in the liver or carcass after 24 h. Three smaller daily doses of CC14 (0.25 ml/kg) also did not increase α-tocopherol catabolism; on the contrary, significantly more α-tocopherol was found in the livers of rats treated with CCI4. These results suggest that CCl4 does not increase lipid peroxidation in vivo.