Glycerolkinase--a regulatory enzyme of gluconeogenesis?
1. The development of glycerolkinase before and after birth was investigated in liver and kidney of rat and hamster. In rat liver, enzyme activity increased very slowly before birth and rapidly thereafter, reaching adult values at the 6th day of postnatal life. In hamster liver, glycerolkinase was considerably elevated already in utero, increased dramatically within the 1st day of postnatal life and reached adult values at the end of the 1st week. The development of hepatic glycerolkinase was compared with that of hepatic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase of rat and hamster up to the 20th day of postnatal life. The different time-courses of the levels of these two enzymes before and after birth as well as the known kinetics of serum insulin, glucagon and corticosterone during that time suggested that none of these hormones is involved in the perinatal development of hepatic glycerolkinase activity. In contrast to liver, kidney glycerolkinase activity in both, rat and hamster, showed a delayed increase during the first week of postnatal life followed by a more pronounced elevation to adult values within the following 2 weeks. 2. When liver and kidney glycerolkinase activity was investigated during starvation (+/- refeeding), in alloxan diabetes(+/- insulin) and after adrenalectomy (+/- cortisol) no significant change in enzyme activity per g tissue could be detected either in liver or in kidney. However, total hepatic glycerolkinase activity was diminished during starvation as a consequence of decreasing liver weight. 3. Incorporation of U-[14C]-glycerol into CO2, lipids and glucose + glycogen by rat liver and kidney cortex slices was studied under the above gluconeogenetic conditions. Despite unchanged glycerolkinase activity in both organs, gluconeogenesis from glycerol was enhanced during starvation and in chronic alloxan diabetes, and could be reversed by refeeding and insulin replacement, respectively. 4. Feeding 20% of linolic acid to normal, alloxan-diabetic or adrenalectomized rats resulted in a significant increase in glycerolkinase activity in liver but not in kidney. 5. From the present findings it is suggested that the first step of gluconeogenesis from glycerol in liver and kidney is not influenced by glucagon, insulin and glucocorticoids, which are generally believed to regulate the rate of gluconeogenesis from non-glycerol precursors, but probably by the change in blood glycerol concentration.