Table 1.

The characteristics of different components in fluid therapy

Component in solution	Involved metabolic pathway	Effect on correcting LA
		Advantage	Deficiency
Lactate	The end-product in the glycolysis pathway	Alleviating LA in moderate HS [28] through plasma expansion	Not working in severe HS and aggravating glycolysis inhibition and lactate accumulation [31–33]
Acetate	Metabolized to acetyl-CoA which is later used in the TCA cycle	Alkalizing plasma quickly, not inhibiting glycolysis and not elevating lactate concentration [40]	Side effect of impaired cardiac contractile response [41], inhibiting PDH activity [42]
Malate	The key intermediate in the TCA cycle	Working in cases of moderate acidosis [44] and moderate HS [46] and elevating energy production [45]	May not be suitable for the LA under severe hypoxic conditions
Pyruvate	The key intermediate in the glycolysis pathway and the TCA cycle	Correcting LA in moderate and lethal HS animals [47–49, 52, 53], isolated failing human myocardium [57] and ischemia-reperfusion injury model [51]	Not approved in clinic