Figure 1.

Hepatic glucose metabolism. Upon glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) mediated entry into the hepatocyte, glucokinase phosphorylates glucose into glucose-6-phosphate, which subsequently undergoes 3 major metabolic fates. This includes (1) storage as glycogen via glycogenesis, (2) the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) to generate important cofactors (NADPH) to support DNL and the production of reduced glutathione, and (3) to generate small amounts of energy (ATP) via aerobic glycolysis, which results in the formation of pyruvate as an end-product. This pyruvate may be transported into the mitochondria via the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, following which the majority is carboxylated into oxaloacetate via PC, whereas a much smaller fraction is decarboxylated into acetyl CoA via PDH.