Investigations of the enzymes involved in the fructose breakdown in the cattle lens.

By introducing fructose into the glycolysis, it is possible to stimulate ATP formation. As is the case in animal experiments, in human lenses, too, the first step in the phosphorylation to fructose-1-phosphate via the enzyme ketohexokinase. The present investigation deals with the question whether enzymes present in the lens are responsible for the further steps in fructose degradation. Particularly the aldolase isoenzyme C splits fructose-1-phosphate into glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone phosphate in the same way as in glucose catabolism. Dihydroxyacetone phosphate can further be directly degraded and thus utilized to ATP formation. From glyceraldehyde, glycerol (aldose reductase) or glycerate (aldehyde dehydrogenase) can be formed. The presence of triosekinase, which phosphorylates glyceraldehyde directly to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, could only be determined in the lens tissue of young animals. The presence of glycerokinase (glycerol leads to glycerophosphate) could not be verified. Thus, in the lens tissue 1 ATP molecule net per fructose molecule can be formed. In older age, the glucose breakdown is limited by hexokinase and phosphofructokinase, so that the glucose, after transformation via the sorbitol pathway to fructose, can also be utilized for the energy metabolism.