Evaluation of glucose turnover, body mass and recycling with reversible and irreversible tracers

1. Methods are presented for the calculation of rates of synthesis or loss, mean transit time and total body pool of compounds from specific-radioactivity curves, without assuming a multicompartmental model and without fitting the data by exponential expressions. The methods apply to the steady state after either single injection or continuous infusion of a labelled compound. 2. The use of irreversible and reversible tracers and the effects of recycling of carbon on the estimations of the parameters of glucose metabolism are discussed. Methods for quantitatively determining recycling of glucose carbon by the use of glucose doubly labelled with (14)C and (3)H are presented.