Metabolism | Ketone Metabolism

📚 Premium Notes & Illustrations for Ketone Metabolism: https://www.ninjanerd.org/lecture/ketone-metabolism-2

Ninja Nerds!
In this metabolism lecture, Professor Zach Murphy presents a detailed breakdown of Ketone Metabolism, focusing on how ketone bodies are synthesized, transported, and utilized as alternative energy sources during prolonged fasting, starvation, or uncontrolled diabetes. This lecture bridges key concepts from fatty acid oxidation and hepatic metabolism to explain the physiologic shift toward ketone body production.

We begin with ketogenesis in the liver, where acetyl-CoA, generated from β-oxidation, is converted into acetoacetate, β-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone through the coordinated action of mitochondrial enzymes such as HMG-CoA synthase and HMG-CoA lyase. You’ll learn how these water-soluble molecules are exported into the bloodstream and taken up by extrahepatic tissues—including the brain, skeletal muscle, and cardiac muscle—for ketolysis.

The lecture emphasizes the metabolic contexts that drive ketone production, such as low insulin, high glucagon, and reduced carbohydrate availability. You’ll also see how succinyl-CoA transferase, absent in the liver, ensures ketone bodies are not used by hepatocytes, preserving them for peripheral tissues.

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