Glycerokinase in Mucosa of the Small Intestine of the Cat

Abstract

THERE is some experimental evidence that in vivo and in vitro free glycerol is a poor glyceride-glycerol precursor for the biosynthesis of triglycerides in mucosa of the small intestine^1–5. This was usually explained by assuming that, due to the absence of glycerokinase from the intestinal mucosa, free glycerol cannot be converted to glycerophosphate, which is known to function as a direct glyceride-glycerol precursor. In agreement with this assumption, Bublitz⁶ and later Wieland and Suyter⁷, who studied the distribution of glycerokinase in a number of rat tissues, reported that it was absent from the small intestine, adipose tissue and skeletal muscle, whereas liver and kidney had appreciable activities.