TRIGLYCERIDES AND FATTY ACIDS 127 



ketone bodies, several reports have l)eeii published which indicate that the 

 administration of butyrate is followed bj'^ an increase in glycogen stores in 

 the liver. Thus, Blixenkrone-M0ller-*'* reported that an increase in liver 

 glycogen occurred in cat liver perfused with butyric acid; it was sug- 

 gested that butyric acid was changed to succinic acid as a result of co-oxida- 

 tion. Succinic acid is believed to be a glucose former. ^s^. 286 However, 

 Deuel et al.-^'' questioned this interpretation, since succinic acid does not 

 exert a ketolytic effect. On the other hand, MacKay ct alr^^ reported that 

 succinic acid exerts an antiketogenic effect if it is fed to rats as the free 

 acid, and not as the sodium salt; under the latter condition, an alkali excess 

 remains which can itself produce a ketonuria. Stohr-^^ and Dziewiatkowski 

 and Lewis^^ reported that, when unfasted rats were given butyrate,-^" or 

 when sodium acetate was administered with glucose to fasted rats,-^^ a 

 higher figure for liver glycogen obtained than was the case in control rats. 

 Finally, Buchanan et al.^^ found that isotopic carbon appeared in liver 

 glycogen in excess of that expected from bicarbonate, when rats were fed 

 butyrate with radioactive carbon in the carboxyl group. 



Many experimental reports show results exactly opposite to those of 

 the experiments described above. In a large number of tests on fasting 

 rats under a variety of conditions, the administration of butyric acid either 

 as the sodium salt or as the ethyl ester did not give rise to any demonstrable 

 amount of gh^cogen, whereas the feeding of odd-chain acids under similar 

 conditions resulted in the formation of well-defined stores of glycogen. ^^-e. si 

 In addition, the feeding of butyrate to phlorhizinized dogs leads to no 

 increase in urinary glucose.'^ Moreover, the excretion of acetone bodies in 

 the urine of rats was identical in amount with that obtained in animals 

 receiving equimolecular amounts of diacetic acid.^^ Finally, Deuel et 

 al.'~^'- showed that no extra glycogen accumulated m the livers of rats fed 

 glucose four hours earher, irrespective of whether or not sodium butyrate 



2«4 X. Blixenkrone-M0ller, Z. physiol. Chem., 252, 137-150 (1938). 



^ A. I. Ringer, E. :\I. Frankel, and L. Jonas, /. Biol. Chem., U, 539-550 (1913). 



286 A. Kordnvi and A. Szent-Gvorgja, Orvosi Hetilap, 81, 615-618 (1937); Chem. Ahst., 

 31, 6335 (1937). 



2«' H. J. Deuel, Jr., S. Murray, and L. Hallman, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol Med., 37, 413- 

 414 (1937). 



288 E. M. MacKay, J. W. Sherrill, and R. H. Barnes, J. Clin. Invest., IS, 301-305 

 (1939). 



289 R. Stohr, Z. physiol. Chem., 217, 141-152 (1933). 



290 D. D. Dziewiatkowski and H. B. Lewis, J. Biol. Chem., 153, 49-52 (1944). 



2" J. M. Buchanan, A. B. Hastings, and F. B. Nesbett, /. Biol. Chem., 150, 413-425 

 (1943). 



292 H. J. Deuel, Jr., C. Johnston, M. G. Morehouse, H. S. Rollman, and R. J. Winzler, 

 J. Biol. Chem., 157, 135-140 (1945). 



