Metabolic changes associated with the switch from a milk to a vegetable diet in the tammar wallaby Macropus eugenii (Desmarest)

Abstract

1. 1. Hepatic carbohydrate metabolism was studied in pre-weaning pouch young and adult tammar wallabies ( Macropus eugenii). 2. 2. Fasting increased rates of glucose synthesis from several substrates by hepatocytes from pouch young but had no effect in adults. 3. 3. Hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase and soluble phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) activities were increased in fasting pouch young but not adults and changes in the concentrations of substrates and products of PEPCK were consistent with there being activation of this enzyme in fasted pouch young. 4. 4. The findings are consistent with gluconeogenesis being inducible in pouch young but not adult tammars, the change in regulation occurring at weaning.