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Drugs and other interventions for high impact hepatic diseases often target biochemical pathways such as gluconeogenesis, lipogenesis, or the metabolic response to oxidative stress. However, traditional liver function tests do not provide quantitative data about these pathways. In this study, we developed a simple method to evaluate these processes by NMR analysis of plasma metabolites. Healthy subjects ingested [U-13C3]glycerol, and blood was drawn at multiple times. Each subject completed three visits under differing nutritional states. High resolution 13C NMR spectra of plasma triacylglycerols and glucose provided new insights into a number of hepatic processes including fatty acid esterification, the pentose phosphate pathway, and gluconeogenesis through the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Fasting stimulated pentose phosphate pathway activity and metabolism of [U-13C3]glycerol in the tricarboxylic acid cycle prior to gluconeogenesis or glyceroneogenesis. Fatty acid esterification was transient in the fasted state but continuous under fed conditions. We conclude that a simple NMR analysis of blood metabolites provides an important biomarker of pentose phosphate pathway activity, triacylglycerol synthesis, and flux through anaplerotic pathways in mitochondria of human liver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of glycerol metabolism in the heart have largely emphasized its role in triglyceride synthesis. However, glycerol may also be oxidized in the citric acid cycle, and glycogen synthesis from glycerol has been reported in the nonmammalian myocardium. The intent of this study was to test the hypothesis that glycerol may be metabolized to glycogen in mammalian heart. Isolated rat hearts were supplied with a mixture of substrates including glucose, lactate, pyruvate, octanoate, [U-13C3]glycerol, and 2H2O to probe various metabolic pathways including glycerol oxidation, glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and carbon sources of stored glycogen. NMR analysis confirmed that glycogen production from the level of the citric acid cycle did not occur and that the glycerol contribution to oxidation in the citric acid cycle was negligible in the presence of alternative substrates. Quite unexpectedly, 13C from [U-13C3]glycerol appeared in glycogen in carbon positions 4-6 of glucosyl units but none in positions 1-3. The extent of [4,5,6-13C3]glucosyl unit enrichment in glycogen was enhanced by insulin but decreased by 2H2O. Given that triose phosphate isomerase is generally assumed to fully equilibrate carbon tracers in the triose pool, the marked 13C asymmetry in glycogen can only be attributed to conversion of [U-13C3]glycerol to [U-13C3]dihydroxyacetone phosphate and [U-13C3]glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate followed by rearrangements in the nonoxidative branch of the pentose phosphate pathway involving transaldolase that places this 13C-enriched 3-carbon unit only in the bottom half of hexose phosphate molecules contributing to glycogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]