Progress in biological chemistry during
the past few decades has led to better understanding
of many problems in clinical
medicine. Only rather recently it became
apparent that pathways other than the classical
Embden-Meyerhof (anaerobic glycolysis)
are operative in glucose catabolism by
mammalian tissues. Following the pioneer
investigations of Warburg, Lipmann, and
Dickens, and recently those of Horecker,
Racker, and others, the existence of an alternate
pathway for glucose catabolism has
been recognized. This schema has been
called the hexose monophosphate shunt, the
glucose oxidative pathway, or the pentose
phosphate pathway and involves a series of
reactions in which phosphorylated sugars
with three, four, five, six, and seven carbon
atoms (triose, tetrose, pentose, hexose, and
heptose phosphates) occur as substrates and
intermediates.
Recognition of this catabolic route has
stimulated investigation into its possible role
in both normal and abnormal mammalian
metabolism. The purpose of this paper is to
outline