Enzymatic activities related to intermediary metabolism of glucose in circulating mononuclear cells from obese humans: relationship to enzyme activity in adipose tissue.

In order to assess whether enzyme activities of glucose metabolism measured in mononuclear blood cells reflect those in a typical insulin target tissue, we studied hexokinase, 6-phosphofructokinase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase activities in lymphomonocytes and in hypogastric adipose tissue from 15 nondiabetic obese women. Statistically significant relationships were found in the activities of hexokinase (r = 0.53, p less than 0.05), 6-phosphofructokinase (r = 0.85, p less than 0.01), and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (r = 0.72, p less than 0.01) between the two tissues. These results suggest that mononuclear blood cells may be suitable as a model for studying cytosolic key enzymes involved in the glucose metabolism of humans.