The metabolism of glucose in normal and thiamine deficient pigeons: I. The conversion of glucose into glycogen, fatty acids and respiratory CO 2

Abstract

The in vivo incorporation of 14C from uniformly labelled glucose into glycogen, fatty acids, and respiratory CO 2 has been studied with groups of pigeons that had received a fat-free diet, with and without thiamine, for 10 days. These three metabolic pathways were all found to be partially blocked in the thiamine deficient animals. The decreased incorporation was not caused by a slower absorption of the glucose from the digestive tract. These observations can be attributed to a diminished activity dehydrogenase and possibly a-ketoglutaric dehydrogenase in vivo. A remarkably large part of the label could not be accounted for, 2 h after the absorption of radioactive glucose was practically complete. This point is briefly discussed.