[Pyruvate metabolism in rats with dietary B1 avitaminosis].

The influence of alimentary deficiency of thiamine on the pyruvate metabolism in the liver and blood of rats was investigated. Note is taken of a fallen activity of pyruvate-dehydrogenase (PDH) and a rising level of pyruvate in the blood and liver. An inverse relationship between the PDH activity and the pyruvate content in the liver, observed during the whole course of the experiment is in evidence, although the substrate level exceeds significantly that of the control only starting from the 20th day. In the normalization of the pyruvate level in the liver all the studied enzymatic systems partake; they join stagewise in the order of alanine-aminotransferase, pyruvate-kinase, malate-enzyme, which differently change their activity in the course of the experiment, along with physiological mechanisms of the pyruvate transport into the blood. These are most pronounced starting from the 20th day (inverse relationships of the pyruvate levels in the blood and liver). During the whole of the experiment a direct relation between the lactate content in the blood and liver persists. In these tissues no relation between the pyruvate and lactate levels was revealed.