Selective effect of insulin on glucose-U-C14 metabolism in rabbit liver slices

Abstract

Insulin increased by 39% the recovery of carbon-C¹⁴ from uniformly labeled glucose in glycogen in rabbit liver slices incubated in a high-potassium buffer, but did not affect the recovery of glucose carbon in CO₂ or total lipid. Since the pathways to CO₂ and lipid were not relatively more saturated than that to glycogen in livers incubated under conditions identical to those in which the insulin effect was observed, the insulin effect is assumed to be specific for glycogen synthesis. Insulin had no effect on glucokinase activity in incubated rabbit liver slices during the time observed (1 hr), nor on the recovery of labeled glucose as any of the measured metabolic products after incubation in Krebs-Ringer buffer.