American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 67, 519S-526S, Copyright © 1998 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

REVIEW ARTICLES

Metabolic interactions between glucose and fatty acids in humans

RR Wolfe
Metabolism Unit, Shriners Burns Institute, and University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77550, USA. rwolfe@sbi.utmb.edu

In vivo energy production results largely from the oxidative metabolism of either glucose or fatty acids. Under diverse physiologic and nutritional conditions, the oxidation of either glucose or fatty acids may predominate. The nature of the control of the availability and oxidation of each substrate has been studied extensively for > or = 30 y. The most popular and enduring hypothesis was proposed by Randle et al in 1963 and is termed the glucose-fatty acid cycle. This proposal places great significance on the regulation of lipolysis as a factor controlling substrate metabolism. Our work has led to an opposite perspective, which could be called the glucose-fatty acid cycle reversed. According to our hypothesis, the rate of glycolysis, determined by the intracellular availability of glucose-6-phosphate, is the predominant factor determining the rate of glucose oxidation. Whereas the rate of lipolysis may have some effect on the availability of glucose, both via a fatty acid-mediated inhibition of plasma glucose uptake and also by supplying glycerol for gluconeogenesis, there is little evidence for a direct inhibitory effect of fatty acid oxidation on the intracellular oxidation of glucose. In contrast, increased glucose oxidation limits oxidation of long-chain fatty acids directly by inhibiting their transport into the mitochondria. Consequently, whereas there is a close coupling between glucose availability and oxidation, fatty acids are generally available in greater quantities than are required for oxidation. We propose that fatty acid oxidation is largely controlled at the site of oxidation, which is in turn determined by the availability of glucose, rather than by its availability via lipolysis.

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