Accumulation of phosphate esters and decline of ATP in red cells incubated in vitro is caused by lack of pyruvate

Abstract

Addition of pyruvate to human red cells incubated in vitro at alkaline pH values inhibits the accumulation of phosphate esters otherwise observed as well as the decrease of ATP and the corresponding increase of ADP and AMP. The increase of glycolysis at alkaline pH values is only partly due to a pH effect per se. About one-half of it is caused by a partial release of the inhibition of phosphofructokinase by a lowering of the ATP concentration and particularly by the increase of AMP. Only in the presence of pyruvate there occurs an increase of 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate, such as is observed in vivo, which is balanced by the consumption of pyruvate. At alkaline pH values in the absence of pyruvate there is a low movement from the fructose-1,6-bisphosphate + triosephosphates pool to the components of the pentose phosphate pathway, mostly by way of recombination from glyceraldehyde-phosphate.