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Utilization of Glucose and Fructose in Bovine Embryos Assessed by Metabolic Flux Analysis

  • 0Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA.
Biochimie +

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June 14, 2025

Abstract

13C Metabolic flux analysis (13C MFA) is a non-invasive methodology for the measurement of fluxes (rates of carbon flow) throughout a metabolic network and can be used to determine nutrient contributions to central metabolic pathways. 13C MFA was used in a systemic metabolic investigation of the nutritional physiology of preimplantation bovine blastocysts. Bovine blastocysts were cultured either singly or in groups of five in 40 μl of medium containing 13C labeled glucose and/or fructose, and the metabolites expelled into the spent media were identified through 13C MFA of heavy isotope labeling. Similarly, the metabolites in spent media following culture of a bovine trophectoderm cell line (CT-1) were monitored. Flux maps generated using 13C MFA suggest that less than 10% of metabolites from the glycolytic pathway were diverted to the pentose phosphate pathway or the tricarboxylic acid cycle in either bovine blastocysts or CT-1 cells with the majority of the hexose (70-80%) resulting in pyruvate and lactate production.

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