Quantifying the carboxylation of pyruvate in pancreatic islets

Pyruvate has been estimated to enter the citric acid cycle in islets by carboxylation to the same extent or more than by decarboxylation. Those estimates were made assuming the dimethyl esters of [1,4-14C]succinate and [2-3-14C]succinate, incubated with islets at a concentration of 10 mM, gave the same ratio of 14CO2 yields as if [1-14C]acetate and [2-14C]acetate had been incubated. The labeled succinates, at 10 mM, but not 1 mM, are now shown to give ratios higher than the labeled acetates at those concentrations and therefore higher estimates when related to yields from [2-14C]glucose and [6-14C]glucose. Using the labeled acetate ratios in paired incubations, the rate of pyruvate carboxylation is still estimated to be about two-thirds the rate of pyruvate decarboxylation. Participation of the malic enzyme-catalyzed reaction explains the greater ratio of yields of 14CO2 from the succinates at 10 mM than 1 mM and increases in those ratios on glucose addition and can account for the removal from the citric acid cycle of oxaloacetate carbon formed in the carboxylation.