Role of NADP+ (corrected)-linked malic enzymes as regulators of the pool size of tricarboxylic acid-cycle intermediates in the perfused rat heart.

Cytosolic and mitochondrial concentrations of malate, 2-oxoglutarate, isocitrate and pyruvate in the isolated perfused rat heart were measured by non-aqueous tissue fractionation, taking the NADP-linked isocitrate dehydrogenase as indicator reactions for the free [NADPH]/[NADP+] ratios. The mass-action ratios of NADP-linked malic enzymes (EC 1.1.1.40) were found to be on the side of pyruvate carboxylation by more than one order of magnitude in both the cytosolic and the mitochondrial spaces in hearts perfused with glucose, whereas during propionate perfusion this ratio approached the equilibrium constant (Keq.) of malic enzyme. The results consequently indicate that the NADP-linked malic enzymes cannot be responsible for the feed-out (cataplerotic) reactions from the tricarboxylic acid cycle which occur during glucose perfusion. Only when other anaplerotic fluxes into the cycle are high, as during propionate oxidation, which results in accumulation of tricarboxylic acid-cycle intermediates, is a steady state reached which allows efflux via the malic enzyme.