Fate of Blood Sugar During Glycolysis.

Abstract

A review of the literature on glycolysis warrants the conclusion that the sugar of shed blood diminishes on standing, independent of bacterial contamination. With respect to the fate of the lost sugar, several papers have been reported in the literature, deducing-somewhat similar conclusions, that a portion of the lost sugar is converted into lactic acid. However, there remained the uncertainty as to the quantitative relation of the sugar lost to the amount of lactic acid produced.

In order to clear up this point, Ave carefully studied the blood glycolysis in vitro from the point of view of the simultaneous changes taking place in the glucose and lactic acid contents of the blood.

The blood was drawn in all instances from the veins under aseptic conditions and maintained at 38° C. free from bacterial contamination. Analyses of the blood were made immediately and after 3, 6 and 24 hours. Potassium oxalate was employed as an anti-coagulant for the whole blood. The amount of the potassium oxalate used was roughly 0.06% of the blood. The specimen was cultured at the end of 24 hours and thus bacterial contamination was excluded.

Analytical Procedures: Brehme and Brahdy 1 have recently described a comparatively simple and accurate method for the estimation of the lactic acid of blood. Hence we employed their method for the determination of lactic acid in the blood. The sugar of blood we determined by the Shaffer-Hartmann method. 2

Discussion of Results: The results are presented in Table 1. The findings for 10 subjects showed that the in vitro process of glycolysis, the sugar gradually decreases with a parallel rise in the lactic acid. All instances except one (subject 2) showed that the difference between the amount of disappeared sugar and the increased lactic acid during 24 hours lies within 12 mg. In subject 2 the difference between these 2 substances was 20.5 mg.