Depletion of glycogen synthetase and increase of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase in livers of ethionine-treated mice

1. Ethionine-treated mice showed a marked depletion in liver glycogen, a decrease of glycogen-synthetase activity, an increase in activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and the solubilization of phosphorylase. 2. The administration of cortisol or glucose did not alleviate these changes but the effect of ethionine was completely prevented in animals given methionine as well as ethionine. 3. The activities of the following enzymes were unchanged: hexokinase, glucokinase, glucose 6-phosphatase, phosphoglucomutase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, UDP-glucose dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase

Stimulation of pentose phosphate pathway dehydrogenase enzyme activities in ethionine-treated mice

1. Mice treated with ethionine (intraperitoneally, 5mg./day for 4 days or 10mg./day for 3 days) showed a profound loss of hepatic glycogen, a decrease of glycogen synthetase activity, a development of hypoglycaemia, a two- to five-fold increase in the activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase but no change in 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and an earlier manifestation of the solubilization of phosphorylase as compared with glycogen synthetase. The administration of ATP did not prevent these effects. 2. During the early post-injection period (2–3 days) there was a further enhancement of the activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (tenfold) in the liver and a clear elevation of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase activity (twofold). Subsequently, the glycogen concentration was restored, followed by an earlier reassociation of glycogen particle with phosphorylase than with glycogen synthetase, along with a disappearance of ethionine effect at about the eighteenth day. 3. Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase from both control and ethionine-treated animals showed a marked preference for glucose 6-phosphate as substrate rather than for galactose 6-phosphate, whose rate of oxidation was only 10% of that of the glucose 6-phosphate. 4. Since actinomycin D, puromycin, 5-fluorouracil and dl-p-fluorophenylalanine failed to block the ethionine-enhanced glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity, the possibility that new enzyme protein synthesis is responsible for the effect is doubtful

Divergent effects of actinomycin D on cortisol and on glucose stimulation of glycogenesis in mouse liver

1. The administration of cortisol and of other glucocorticoid steroids to starved mice produced an increase in liver glycogen content, an elevation of glycogen-synthetase activity and a predominantly particulate localization of both phosphorylase and glycogen-synthetase enzymes. 2. Three daily doses of actinomycin D caused a marked glycogen depletion, a significant decrease in glycogen-synthetase activity, the solubilization of phosphorylase and glycogen synthetase and the following effects on the activities of various other enzymes: a decrease in UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and phosphoglucomutase, an increase in glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and no change in glucose 6-phosphatase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase and UDP-glucose dehydrogenase. 3. Glucose ingestion, but not cortisol administration, reversed the effects of actinomycin D on liver glycogen content and on the activities of phosphorylase and glycogen synthetase