Effect of Oxygen Deprivation on the Metabolism of Fetal and Adult Tissues

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Abstract
Fetal liver slices have a remarkably high rate of lipogenesis anaerobically as well as aerobically, shown by the incorporation of carbon-14 from pyruvate into lipids. In contrast, slices of adult or 1-day-old liver have a much lower lipogenetic rate anaerobically than aerobically. Fractionation of the fetal liver lipids showed that phospholipid and glyceride fatty acids are synthesized at essentially equal rates aerobically and anaerobically but cholesterol synthesis is much slower in nitrogen than in oxygen. Fetal liver slices have a respiratory quotient of about 1.5, further evidence of rapid lipogenesis. Lactate production by fetal liver is 90% greater in nitrogen than in oxygen; that of adult liver is only 30% greater. Fetal liver metabolizes anaerobically much more pyruvate carbonyl carbon to carbon dioxide than adult liver does. Direct evidence from the rate of conversion of labeled glucose to labeled pyruvate showed that the glycolytic enzymes of fetal liver respond to anaerobiosis more effectively than those of adult liver. Thus the aging of fetal tissue to adult includes a loss of a) the high rate of glycogen deposition, b) the high rate of activity of one or more glycolytic enzymes which are rate-limiting in the adult, and c) the high rate of lipogenesis which is evident anaerobically as well as aerobically.

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