Metabolic patterns in various structures of the rat nephron. The distribution of enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism.

By means of the microdissection technique applied on kidney tissue, the following results were obtained: Hexokinase, an enzyme of glycolysis, revealed a low activity in the proximal and a high activity in the distal tubule. This distribution pattern is consistent with the finding that glucose is the main fuel for the distal tubule. Glucose-6-phosphatase, an enzyme of gluconeogenesis, demonstrates a significant activity in the distal tubule and in the glomerulus. Both structures are, however, no glucose producers. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, the key enzyme of gluconeogenesis, is found only in the segments of the proximal tubule. The distal tubule lacks any activity. This is also the case during starvation and metabolic acidosis when gluconeogenesis is stimulated. Glutamic dehydrogenase, -an enzyme possibly connected with ammoniagenesis-, malate- and lactate dehydrogenase-, enzymes involved with hydrogen transfer through the mitochondrial membrane-, showed a close parallelism to phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in their distribution along the proximal tubule. The bidirectional function of glyceraldehyde-P dehydrogenase is well documented by the close correlation to phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (gluconeogenesis) in the proximal tubule and to pyruvic kinase (glycolysis) in the distal tubule.