Metabolic activities of sheep erythrocytes. I. Glycolytic activities

Abstract

Sheep erythrocytes, which in most animals are impermeable to glucose, show low glycolytic activities relative to human cells. When 14C-labelled glucose was incubated with erythrocyte suspensions the oxygen uptake was 10.9 ± 1.8 µl/hr/ml of cells (5 replications), and glucose oxidation (measured by recovery of [14C]carbon dioxide) was 0.03 ± 0.007 µmole/hr/ml (5). Addition of methylene blue (0.4 µmole/ ml) increased oxygen uptake to 56 ± 3.5 µl/hr/ml (5) and glucose oxidation to 0.36 ± 0.02 µmole/hr/ml. Lactic acid production was increased from 1 .5 ± 0.06 µmole/hr/ml (7) to 1.7 ± 0.11 µmole/hr/ml (7) in the presence of methylene blue. Comparison of the yields of [14C]carbon dioxide from [1-14C]glucose and uniformly labelled [14C]glucose indicated that when stimulated by methylene blue 80–100% of glycolysis proceeded by the pentose phosphate pathway, but in the unstimulated system the alternative aerobic pathway accounted for only about 15% of total glycolysis.