ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a few issues of metabolism that connect to cellular energy. Cellular energy is a common thread in metabolism. The terms catabolism and anabolism are useful classifications in broadly dividing metabolic sequences between breaking down nutrients for their energy and building or maintaining basic cell structures. One other curious overlap of signaling and metabolic activity is found in the beta cells of the pancreas, devoted to the secretion of insulin. One way of summarizing cellular energy pathways is to list three means of adenosine triphosphate production: Creatine phosphokinase, Glycolysis, Krebs cycle. The idea behind this approach is that the creatine phosphokinase equilibrium is shifted in the direction of creatine during energy depletion, and then towards creatine phosphate following energy restoration. In particular, since the creatinine arises only from creatine phosphate, it is possible that some error is introduced in assuming a constant total creatine pool over the time course of the measurement.
