Pyruvate Accumulation in Preserved Blood

Abstract

A biphasic rise in pyruvate was found in sterile blood kept at 5[degree]C in an acid citrate-dextrose preservative soln. An initial transient pyruvate increase coincided with the rapid disappearance of most of the 2,3_DPG from the erythrocytes. This was followed by a 2d, sustained rise in pyruvate which could be partially inhibited by cyanide and by deoxygenation of the blood. The 2d pyruvate increase was absent in congenital methemoglobinemic blood. Evidently a portion of the terminal pyruvate increase in preserved blood is due to a partial aerobic coupling of 3-phospho_glyceraldehyde oxidation through DPN, a flavoprotein and a hemeprotein. As a result, a portion of the pyruvate formed from the products of 3_phospho-glyceraldehyde oxidation was not reduced to lactate and so accumulated.