scholarly journals Translating metabolic biochemistry into the clinic: an interview with Steve O'Rahilly

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Weston
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Biochemistry

Metabolic biochemistry of water- vs. air-breathing fishes: muscle enzymes and ultrastructure

1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 736-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Hochachka ◽  
M. Guppy ◽  
H. E. Guderley ◽  
K. B. Storey ◽  
W. C. Hulbert
Keyword(s):  
White Muscle ◽  
Large Diameter ◽  
Oxidative Capacity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Muscle Enzymes ◽  
Air Breathing ◽  
Red Muscle ◽  
Phosphofructokinase Activity ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry ◽  
Myotomal Muscle

To delineate what modifications in muscle metabolic biochemistry correlate with transition to air breathing in fishes, the myotomal muscles of aruana, an obligate water breather, and Arapaima, a related obligate air breather, were compared using electron microscopy and enzyme methods. White muscle in both species maintained a rather similar ultrastructure, characterized by large-diameter fibers, very few mitochondria, and few capillaries. However, aruana white muscle displayed nearly fivefold higher levels of pyruvate kinase, threefold higher levels of muscle-type lactate dehydrogenase, and a fourfold higher ratio of fructose diphosphatase –phosphofructokinase activity; at the same time, enzymes in aerobic metabolism occurred at about one-half the levels in Arapaima. Red muscle was never found in the myotomal mass of aruana, but in Arapaima, red muscle was present and seemed fueled by glycogen, lipid droplets never being observed. From these and other data, it was concluded that in myotomal muscle two processes correlate with the transition to air breathing in Amazon osteoglossids: firstly, an emphasis in oxidative metabolism, and secondly, a retention of red muscle. However, compared with more active water-breathing species, Arapaima sustains an overall dampening of enzyme activities in its myotomal muscle, which because of the large myotome mass explains why its overall metabolic rate is relatively low. By keeping the oxidative capacity of its myotomal muscle low, Arapaima automatically conserves O2 either for a longer time or for other more O2-requiring organs in the body, a perfectly understandable strategy for an air-breathing, diving fish, comparable with that observed in other diving vertebrates. A similar comparison was also made of two erythrinid fishes, one that skimmed the O2-rich surface layers of water and one that obtained three quarters of its O2 from water, one quarter from air. Ultrastructural and enzyme data led to the unexpected conclusion that the surface skimmer sustained a higher oxidative capacity in its myotomal muscles than did the facultative air breather.

scholarly journals A lunch of pizza and past used for learning of metabolic Biochemistry

2003 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
R. M. Passos ◽  
V. L. Wolff ◽  
Y. K.M. Nóbrega ◽  
M. Hermes-Lima
Keyword(s):  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry

Abstract of the panel presented at the SBBq annual meeting (see attachament).

Pizza and pasta help students learn metabolism

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato M. Passos ◽  
Alexandre B. Sé ◽  
Vanessa L. Wolff ◽  
Yanna K. M. Nobrega ◽  
Marcelo Hermes-Lima
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Blood Parameters ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Maximum Score ◽  
Diet Soda ◽  
Medical Undergraduate ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry

In this article, we report on an experiment designed to improve the learning of metabolic biochemistry by nutrition and medical undergraduate students. Twelve students participated in a monitored lunch and had their blood extracted for analysis 1) before lunch, 2) 30 min after lunch, and 3) 3 h after lunch. The subjects were divided in two groups. One group had a hyperglicidic meal [pasta plus orange juice: 80% carbohydrate, 10% protein, and 10% lipid (estimated values)] and the other group had a hyperlipidic meal (calabresi pizza plus diet soda: 36% carbohydrate, 18% protein, and 46% lipid). Individual quantities of food were based on body mass index, age, and sex. The blood parameters analyzed were glucose, triglycerides (TG), and urea. Glucose remained constant in the three measurements in both groups. The TG concentration in the pasta group was constant before and after lunch but increased significantly during the evening. In the pizza group, TG increased after lunch and remained constant in the evening. Levels of urea increased only in the evening, specially in the pizza group. These results were used for the final biochemistry exam. With the maximum score set as 10, the average score was 6.0 ± 2.4 ( n = 102). We considered this activity a unique way of evaluating important issues on metabolism, because students had several hours to work on the final exam (with free access to a bibliography). It was also a good didactic experience (problem-based learning like) for the subject students, because they had to work in all phases of the experiment (idealization, realization, and analysis) and participated actively in the elaboration and correction of the exam.

Regulatory principles in metabolism–then and now

2016 ◽  
Vol 473 (13) ◽  
pp. 1845-1857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Curi ◽  
Philip Newsholme ◽  
Gabriel Nasri Marzuca-Nassr ◽  
Hilton Kenji Takahashi ◽  
Sandro Massao Hirabara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Metabolic Regulation ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Thermodynamic Structure ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Cell Tissue ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry ◽  
Metabolic Disruption

The importance of metabolic pathways for life and the nature of participating reactions have challenged physiologists and biochemists for over a hundred years. Eric Arthur Newsholme contributed many original hypotheses and concepts to the field of metabolic regulation, demonstrating that metabolic pathways have a fundamental thermodynamic structure and that near identical regulatory mechanisms exist in multiple species across the animal kingdom. His work at Oxford University from the 1970s to 1990s was groundbreaking and led to better understanding of development and demise across the lifespan as well as the basis of metabolic disruption responsible for the development of obesity, diabetes and many other conditions. In the present review we describe some of the original work of Eric Newsholme, its relevance to metabolic homoeostasis and disease and application to present state-of-the-art studies, which generate substantial amounts of data that are extremely difficult to interpret without a fundamental understanding of regulatory principles. Eric's work is a classical example of how one can unravel very complex problems by considering regulation from a cell, tissue and whole body perspective, thus bringing together metabolic biochemistry, physiology and pathophysiology, opening new avenues that now drive discovery decades thereafter.

scholarly journals Whither life? Conjectures on the future evolution of biochemistry

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20160269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodi L. Brewster ◽  
Thomas J. Finn ◽  
Miguel A. Ramirez ◽  
Wayne M. Patrick
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Sufficient Time ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Regulatory Circuits ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
The Future ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry

Life has existed on the Earth for approximately four billion years. The sheer depth of evolutionary time, and the diversity of extant species, makes it tempting to assume that all the key biochemical innovations underpinning life have already happened. But we are only a little over halfway through the trajectory of life on our planet. In this Opinion piece, we argue: (i) that sufficient time remains for the evolution of new processes at the heart of metabolic biochemistry and (ii) that synthetic biology is providing predictive insights into the nature of these innovations. By way of example, we focus on engineered solutions to existing inefficiencies in energy generation, and on the complex, synthetic regulatory circuits that are currently being implemented.

scholarly journals Project-based learning in metabolic biochemistry teaching

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (esp1) ◽  
pp. 526-533
Author(s):  
Bruno Pereira GARCÊS ◽  
Kelly de Oliveira SANTOS ◽  
Carlos Alberto de OLIVEIRA
Keyword(s):  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Metabolic Biochemistry
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