Effect of Carbohydrate Load by Intravenous Infusion in Fasted Rats on Liver Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase and Malic Enzyme

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Abstract
Both acute fasting and chronic starvation reduce the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and malic enzyme (ME) to about the same extent in liver. Infusion of chronically starved rats for 22 hours with a high carbohydrate solution resulted in increases in these liver enzyme activities to levels that were two to three times normal. Similar infusions into normal rats resulted in similar two- to threefold increases in enzyme activities. These data, together with those previously reported for normal or fasted rats fed high carbohydrate diets, indicate that the “starve-refeed” response, in which these enzyme activities overshoot their normal levels in liver, is simply due to the administration of excess glucose relative to the rat's current capacity to metabolize carbohydrate.