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. 1992 Jun 1;284(Pt 2):363–366. doi: 10.1042/bj2840363

Fructose metabolism in the human erythrocyte. Phosphorylation to fructose 3-phosphate.

A Petersen 1, F Kappler 1, B S Szwergold 1, T R Brown 1
PMCID: PMC1132646  PMID: 1599419

Abstract

In human erythrocytes, the first step in the metabolism of fructose is generally thought to be phosphorylation to fructose 6-phosphate catalysed by hexokinase. In variance with this assumption, we show here that fructose in these cells is metabolized primarily to fructose 3-phosphate by a specific 3-phosphokinase. This process has an overall estimated Km of 30 mM with respect to extracellular fructose and an apparent Vmax. of 0.6 mumol/h per ml. At a fixed concentration of fructose in the medium, the accumulation of fructose 3-phosphate was linearly dependent on the duration of incubation up to 5 h and was not affected by glucose. Once accumulated, fructose 3-phosphate appears to be degraded and/or relatively slowly metabolized, decreasing by only approximately 30% after a 12 h incubation in a fructose-free medium.

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Selected References

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