AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 237, Issue 3 153-R158, Copyright © 1979 by American Physiological Society
Computer simulation of metabolism in pyruvate-perfused rat heart. I. Model construction
M. C. Kohn, M. J. Achs and D. Garfinkel
A computer model of energy metabolism was constructed for the
pyruvate-perfused rat heart subjected to a sudden increase in work load.
The model construction techniques are explained and justified. Hypotheses
defining a plausible sequence of physiological events resulting in the
observed behavior of the organ were arrived at from the measured metabolite
time profiles. There is a lag in increasing pyruvate utilization following
the work-jump. A transient increase in fatty acid oxidation is required to
account for the observed respiration rate. The observed increase in lactate
production of this preparation is due to a transient "burst" of
glycogenolysis after which the remaining lactate is imported from the
interstitium and oxidized, reversing lactate dehydrogenase and hence the
alpha-ketoglutarate-malate portion of the malate-aspartate shuttle.
