THE EFFECT OF HYPERCAPNIC ACIDOSIS UPON SOME GLYCOLYTIC AND KREBS CYCLE-ASSOCIATED INTERMEDIATES IN THE RAT BRAIN

Abstract— In order to study the influence of intracellular pH on the carbohydrate metabolism of brain tissue, the concentrations of glucose, glucose-6-phosphate, pyruvate, lactate, citrate, α-oxoglutarate, malate, glutamate, aspartate and ammonia were measured in rats exposed to 6–40% CO₂, for 45 min. Hypercapnia of increasing severity gave rise to progressive increases in the concentrations of glucose, glucose-6-phosphate and ammonium ion and to progressive decreases in the concentrations of all metabolic acids measured. The results fit with aH⁺ inhibition of a rate-limiting step between glucose-6-phosphate and pyruvate, and by inference from the results published by others it may be assumed that this step is the phosphofructokinase reaction. Since the proportionally largest decrease occurred in a α-oxoglutarate, the results might be compatible either with an inhibition of a second rate-limiting step such as isocitrate dehydrogenase, or with a loss of α-oxoglutarate through carboxylation to citrate.