Spontaneous Development of Gluconeogenesis in Fetal Rat Livers during Incubation in Organ Culture

Abstract

Summary

Freshly isolated fetal liver explants in organ culture did not convert L-[¹⁴C]alanine or L-[¹⁴C]lactate to carbohydrate, but L-[¹⁴C]serine and D-[¹⁴C]glycerol were both transformed. When explants were subjected to 42 hr of preliminary incubation without supplements, followed by transfer to fresh medium with added precursor, all four substrates underwent gluconeogenic transformation. It was concluded that the ability of fetal rat liver in organ culture to convert alanine and lactate to carbohydrate evolves slowly, but the conversion of glycerol, and to a lesser extent serine, to glucose and glycogen is initiated immediately.

This work was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Grants AM 09006, HD 09715 and CA 14194 and the General Research Support Grant RR 5589.