The two-carbon chain in metabolism.

Abstract

THE IMPACT of the nutritional environment upon an organism cannot be appreciated without reference to cellular physiology and to the biochemical events which underlie cell function. The science of biochemistry, therefore, has become increasingly important in the interpretation of nutritional effects and, for that matter, of all the properties and responses of living matter. Biochemistry can no longer be considered by the medical student or the physician as a dispensable and esoteric subject. It provides the disciplinary base for an increasing number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in the practice of medicine. Nutritional therapy can best be understood by visualizing both the pathologic physiology and the effect of nutrition management in biochemical terms. The fate of the 2-carbon chain active acetate bears directly on a variety of essential metabolic processes such as energy production, ketone body formation, and fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis. Its functional distribution is dependent upon proper