Fatty Acid Oxidation

Branched-chain Amino Acid Oxidation, Fatty Acid β-oxidation, and the Citric Acid Cycle Share A Common Chemical Strategy

 

In a healthy person, if we labeled palmitate with the label shows up in glucose. This means that in the strictest sense of the word carbon atoms from a fat are incorporated into glucose. However, biochemists say, "You cannot make glucose from fat." How can you reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Explain why glucose could be synthesized by metabolism of a C17 carbon fatty acid.

How many moles of glucose could theoretically be produced from one mole of C17:0 fatty acid?

Muscles are made up of cells called fast twitch and slow twitch. Fast twitch muscle generally appears white while slow twitch is brown due to additional mitochondria with their ETC proteins. Muscles burn fat all the time, especially slow twitch muscle. During periods of high demand fat can only be burned so fast because there are only so many copies of the protein and enzymes involved in ETC and oxidative phosphorylation. As a result, muscle burns glucose as we have many more copies of these enzymes. Explain why it is important that we have muscle cells that have many copies of the enzymes for glycolysis.

Inhibitors of fatty acid degradation are used to relieve angina ( heart pain ) resulting from insufficient oxygen. Why does this make sense?

As you may know, camels don't need to consume much water, which is why they are used in desert conditions. Where does the water come from? Be sure to consider water as a reactant and product in your answer.

Briefly explain why the values calculated in ATP yield per carbon for glucose and palmitate using theoretical in vivo values for ATP production vs standard free energies differ.

What do these results say about the relative efficiency of oxidizing carbohydrates and fats?

What is oxidized in each round of beta-oxidation?

The beta carbon of the acyl chain

What is reduced in each round of beta-oxidation?

NAD+ and FAD

Which of the following is the correct sequence of events (from start to finish) in cellular fatty acid oxidation?

Fatty acid activation → carnitine shuttle → beta-oxidation

Which of these catalyzes the “committing-step” in fatty acid oxidation?

Carnitine shuttle

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