METABOLISM OF HEXOSES IN RAT CEREBRAL CORTEX SLICES

— 1 The metabolism of two 14C‐labelled hexoses and one hexose analogue, viz. mannose, fructose and glucosamine, has been compared with that of glucose for slices of rat cerebral cortex incubated in vitro. 2 The metabolism of [U‐14C]mannose was essentially identical to that of glucose; oxygen consumption and CO3 production were similar and maximal at a substrate concentration of 2·75 mM. Incorporation of label into lactate, aspartate, glutamate and GABA was similar for the two substrates at 5·5 mM substrate concentration. 3 With [U‐14C]fructose, maximal oxygen consumption and CO3 production were obtained at a substrate concentration of 11 mM. At 5·5 mM, incorporation into lactate was 5 per cent, into glutamate and GABA 30 per cent, into alanine 63 per cent and into aspartate 152 per cent of that from glucose. Increasing substrate concentration to 27·5 mm was without effect on incorporation into amino acids from glucose and raised incorporation from fructose into glutamate, GABA and alanine to a level similar to that found with glucose; at the higher substrate concentration aspartate incorporation from fructose was 200 per cent and lactate 42 per cent of that with glucose. Unlabelled fructose was without effect on incorporation of radioactivity from [3‐14C]pyruvate into CO2 or amino acids; it increased incorporation into lactate by 36 per cent. Unlabelled glucose diminished incorporation into CO2 from [U‐14C]fructose to 35 per cent; incorporation into lactate was stimulated 178 per cent at 5·5 mM fructose; at 27·5 mM it was diminished to 75 per cent. 4 By comparison with [1‐14C]glucose, incorporation of radioactivity from [1‐14C]‐glucosamine into lactate, CO2, alanine, GABA and glutamine was very low; incorporation into aspartate was similar to glucose. Thus the metabolism of glucosamine resembled that of fructose. Glucosamine‐1‐phosphate, glucosamine‐6‐phosphate, and an unidentified metabolite, all accumulated.