CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM: III. RELATION OF SALT AND WATER TO THE OXIDATION OF DEXTROSE

When a number of years ago we noticed the failure of oxidation of dextrose injected intravenously into children recovering from attacks of vomiting, a series of experiments was planned to evaluate several of the factors which might be related to this phenomenon. Prominent among these were starvation, with the attendant depletion of glycogen stores, alterations in the acid-base balance of the blood and abnormalities in the water balance. In a previous communication 1 the effects of starvation and diminished stores were described. It was shown not only that there was no oxidation of the dextrose injected into persons in a state of complete starvation, since the sugar administered was stored, but that in persons in a submaintenance or partially depleted state storage took precedence over oxidation for purposes of accumulating energy and oxidation apparently did not occur until the stores were filled. The present communication is concerned with an evaluation