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Lactate

Up Acid-base Hyponatraemia Lactate Magnesium Phosphate Potassium

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  • End-product for some tissues but substrate for others
  • Lactate oxidation not dependent on insulin and therefore may be a useful substrate in patients with insulin-resistance
  • Can be metabolized when ATP concentrations very low (unlike glucose which requires ATP for initial step in oxidation - metabolism to glucose-6-phosphate)
  • Astrocytes synthesize lactate which is then metabolized by neurons. Lactate may be primary energy source of neurons
  • Although the liver is an important site of lactate metabolism extra-hepatic metabolism is very significant
  • In isolated rat hearts oxygen consumption lower at any given level of cardiac work when lactate used as a substrate compared with glucose
 

©Charles Gomersall, October, 2009 unless otherwise stated. The author, editor and The Chinese University of Hong Kong take no responsibility for any adverse event resulting from the use of this webpage.
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