ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates in nonruminants, ruminants, and fish, as well as glucose metabolism through glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the pentose cycle, uronic acid pathway, gluconeogenesis, glycogenesis, glycogenolysis, and other related pathways. Toward a better understanding of such a nutritional dilemma, highlights the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates in nonruminants, ruminants, and fish, as well as glucose metabolism through glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the pentose cycle, uronic acid pathway, gluconeogenesis, glycogenesis, glycogenolysis, and other related pathways. Pathways for glucose metabolism in tissues are the same in animals, and thus these pathways are highlighted. Since a persistent high concentration of glucose in the plasma of fasting subjects is a diagnostic indicator of diabetes mellitus, extensive research has been conducted on glucose metabolism in mammalian cells. Although the uronic acid pathway is quantitatively a minor pathway for glucose metabolism in animal cells, glucuronic acid is involved in the excretion of toxic metabolites and foreign chemicals as glucuronides.
