Gluconeogenesis in isolated rat hepatic parenchymal cells. IX. Differential effects of glucagon and epinephrine on phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase.

The isolated hepatocyte preparation (from 24-hour fasted rats) comprised a homogeneous population of intact cells as shown by electron microscopy. Homogenates of hepatocytes were incubated for 10 minutes in an ionic buffer solution containing 1.5% gelatin with and without hormones and centrifuged at 27,500 X g for 30 minutes, and the supernatant fractions were assayed for enzyme activities. Hexokinase activity was absent, although it was easily detectable in the same fraction of intact liver. The activity of glucokinase was uninfluenced by any of the hormones. The assayable activity of fructose diphosphatase was not increased by glucagon, monobutyryl cyclic adenosine-3',5'-monophosphate (mb-cAMP), or epinephrine, nor was it inhibited by insulin. The activities of phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase were not increased by insulin; however, glucagon and mb-cAMP inhibited the assayable activity of phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase to 20 to 25% of control values. Epinephrine did not influence the assayable activity of either enzyme, although it stimulated gluconeogenesis as markedly as did glucagon and mb-cAMP. When liver cell homogenates were subjected to centrifugation at higher forces (37,400 X g for 60 minutes or greater), the assayable activity of phosphofructokinase in supernatant fractions began to diminish. Additional loss of phosphofructokinase activity was observed in supernates prepared from cells that had been incubated with epinephrine; however, in these supernatant fractions, pyruvate kinase activity did not differ from control values. The results reported here demonstrate (1) a behavior of phosphofructokinase which is not predictable on the basis of its known solubility properties, and (2) differential effects of glucagon and epinephrine on the activity of phosphofructokinase which suggest that separate mechanisms are operative in stimulation of glucoeogenesis by glucagon and epinephrine.