The carbohydrate metabolism of the kidney

Abstract

A study of the formation of lactic acid by excised kidney cortex of the rabbit led to the following conclusions. The normal glycogen content of the cortex is insufficient to account for the lactic acid formed when the tissue is incubated; the liberation of inorganic phosphate and the formation of lactic acid are, apparently, independent processes; the cortex produces large amounts of lactic acid from glucose, smaller amounts from glycogen and from fructose; mannose and galactose are unattacked, or at least yield no lactic acid; the presence of 0.002 M arsenate does not accelerate the glycolytic process; pyruvate is reduced to lactic acid. The results as a whole suggest that normal glycolysis in the rabbit kidney proceeds, very largely, by a path which is independent of phosphate.