Activity of Enzymes of Glucose and Triglyceride Metabolism in Adipose and Muscle Tissue from Normal Pregnant Women at Term

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Abstract
In order to further investigate insulin insensitivity in pregnancy, the activities of key enzymes in glycolysis and lipid metabolism were measured in adipose and muscle tissue biopsies from 20 normal pregnant women undergoing caesarean section at term, and 23 non-pregnant women of similar age and body weight undergoing gynaecological surgery. The activity of pyruvate kinase was decreased in pregnant women in both adipose tissue (0.015 (0.009-0.024) (median and range) vs 0.020 (0.009-0.038) Ug-1 wet weight, p less than 0.05) and muscle tissue (6.7 (3.6-10.9) vs 12.0 (2.8-16.2) U g-1 wet weight, p less than 0.001). The activity of hexokinase was decreased in adipose tissue only (0.045 (0.022-0.085) vs 0.057 (0.025-0.097) U g-1 wet weight, p less than 0.05), while the activity of phosphofructokinase was decreased in muscle tissue only (1.3 (0.7-2.6) vs 2.1 (0.3-4.5) U g-1 wet weight, p less than 0.01). Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity was increased in muscle tissue (0.30 (0.11-0.59) vs 0.17 (0.09-0.48) U g-1 wet weight, p less than 0.05), while the activity of hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase was decreased in adipose tissue (0.5 (0.3-1.1) vs 1.0 (0.5-2.3) U g-1 wet weight p less than 0.001) from the pregnant women. Similar results were found when enzyme activities were calculated per gram of protein, but with poorer reproducibility.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)