Metabolic implications of ageing: changes in activities of key lipogenic and gluconeogenic enzymes in the aged rat liver.

The variations in enzyme activities involved in the main pathways of liver energetic metabolism--glycolysis, Krebs cycle, gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis--have been studied in rats ranging between the age of 4 days and 21 months. The major changes observed are the following: (1) enzymes involved in glycolysis (pyruvate kinase) and lipogenesis (NADP-malic enzyme, ATP-citrate lyase) decrease in activity during ageing, and (2) gluconeogenic enzymes (phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, glucose-6-phosphatase) are maintained or slightly increased over the same period. The results suggest that an increase in the capacity for gluconeogenesis with respect to that for lipogenesis takes place in the aged rat liver.