[Metabolic effect of coffee and caffeine]

Abstract

Coffee and its most important constituent, caffeine, may not only stimulate the function of many organs but also increase the metabolism in the body. These effects require a higher energy production which is mainly obtained from striated muscles by glycogenolysis and from fat tissue by lipolysis. Sutherland and Butcher were able to demonstrate that these degradation processes are primarily caused by an increase of cyclic 3,5-AMP. - In this connection caffeine and other methylxanthines are of special interest because these compounds also increase the intracellular amount of cyclic 3,5-AMP. This effect may be caused by an inhibition of phosphodiesterase, a release of catecholamines with resulting stimulation of adenylcyclase or by competitive inhibition of adenosine. At the present time it cannot be said which of these mechanisms primarily is involved in the in vivo effects of caffeine and other methylxanthines.