Some properties of rat-liver glucose--adenosine triphosphate phosphotransferases.

In normal rat liver hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1) activity usually accounts for not more than 30% of the total glucose-ATP phosphotransferase activity, the remainder being due to glucokinase (EC 2.7.1.2). In the present work it was found that in normal rat liver the relative activities of these two enzymes were occasionally very different from those usually found even though the total glucose-ATP phosphotransferase activity was within the normal range. In some cases almost the entire glucose-ATP phosphotransferase was accounted for by the low-K(m) enzyme hexokinase. Some properties of this enzyme system are reported. It is suggested that this shift in favour of the low-K(m) enzyme without change in the total glucose-ATP phosphotransferase activity may represent a regulatory mechanism.