Metabolite concentrations in the liver of the adult and developing guinea pig and the control of glycolysis in vivo.

A range of metabolite concentrations have been determined in the liver of the adult and fetal guinea pig during the latter half of gestation. Adenine nucleotides showed little change during development of the fetal liver and the only major difference from the adult was a low ADP concentration. The hexose phosphates, particularly fructose 1,6-diphosphate, were higher and the triose phosphates in the glycolytic pathway after glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate were lower in the fetal liver. Cytosolic $\text{NAD}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{NADH}$ ratios were comparable in both adult and fetal livers as were cytosolic $\text{NADP}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{NADPH}$ ratios for the last 15–20 days of gestation. The metabolite concentrations have been used to indicate that glycolysis in the fetal guinea pig liver is controlled largely by hexokinase, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate kinase.