Insulin and Glycolysis/Kreb's Cycle

[SuperSneaky]

I was wondering why insulin stimulates glycolysis/Kreb's cycle? I always thought insulin stimulated glycogenesis, while glucagon stimulated glycogenolysis as well as glycolysis/Kreb's cycle. Can't really find anything online that explains this in more detail 🙁

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[SpaceBuff12]

I like to think of it in terms of the equilibration of individual reactions that "drive" the forward direction of whole cycles. If insulin promotes glucose uptake by stimulating an increase in glucose uptake receptors in the plasma membrane then the concentration of glucose in the cell will increase, glucose becomes phosphorylated and cannot leave the cell, etc. It be comes a linear cascade of events that ultimately increases the rate of glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and etc.

That's the way I prefer to think about it, anyway. Hope that helps.

 

[SuperSneaky]

Thanks for the response! Hm... that's what I figured. I guess for the average cell this is true, but for cells in say the liver or muscles, glycogenesis would probably be stimulated more (in the presence of insulin) instead right?

 

[SN2ed]

Thread closed. These types of questions belong in the MCAT Study Q&A forum.