THE METABOLIC FATE OF GALACTOSE IN ADULT DOGS AND RABBITS

Abstract

Following galactose administration to dogs, blood samples, collected simultaneously from the femoral artery and vein or from the common carotid artery and internal jugular vein, were analyzed for galactose. Galactose is neither oxidized nor converted to glycogen in muscle, and is not oxidized in nerve tissue. Galactose was injected into the duodenum of rabbits; analyses of blood, collected simultaneously at 30-min. intervals from the portal vein and a hepatic vein, showed significant withdrawals of galactose from, and corresponding additions of glucose to, the blood which passed through the liver, which thus seems to be the site of the conversion of galactose into glucose. Data were also obtained in galactose tolerance studies on rabbits (blood from the marginal ear veins) showing that the conversion of galactose into glucose is demonstrable only in non-fasted animals.