Wayfaring MD: Missionary Physician
I like to highlight the hilarious in medicine as I write about patients, medical school, residency, medical missions, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Oh yeah, and I like to use GIFs!
Disclaimer:
HIPAA is for reals, folks. All of my "patient stories" have been changed to protect patient privacy. I will change any or all identifiers, including age, location, race/ethnicity, sex, medical history, and quotes.
Anonymous Asks:
wayfaringmd Said:
ok, if you meant kerbs (as in curb, as in a reference to this post), then HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
If you meant Krebs, ignore my joke and read on.
SCIENCE
So to get the Krebs cycle you need to know that it’s part of the whole process of cellular respiration. If you had asked me this about 3 years ago, I could have written you a novel. I’m going to try for a paragraph now.
First you got glycolysis, which takes place in the cytoplasm of the cell. Take glucose, a 6 Carbon molecule, and break it into 2 pyruvates (3 carbons)to produce a net of 2 ATPs.
Then you gotta break down your pyruvates into 2 CO2’s per 1 pyruvate molecule. That’s where the Krebs cycle comes in. First you remove 1 carbon and an electron to produce AcetylCoA and NADH. The AcetylCoA enters the Kreb’s cycle (AKA Citric acid cycle).
Think of all the players in the Krebs cycle as carbon carriers. The 2C AcetylCoA hops on the back of a 4C oxaloacetate and becomes citrate, which is then converted to isocitrate. They take 1 pit stop and drop off a Carbon, becoming alpha-ketoglutarate and then drop off another carbon to become succinyl CoA. So now we’re back to 4 carbons, but to be able to break down another pyruvate we have to change the succinylCoA back to oxaloacetate, which is what happens in the remaining steps.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
In total, 1 molecule of glucose makes 6 NADH2+, 2 FADH2, and 2 ATP. The NADH and FADH carry electrons to the electron transport chain, which power an H+ pump that creates an H+ gradient that makes a free energy potential to do work in the cell.
The players in the Krebs cycle don’t just play in the Krebs cycle. They are all used in other metabolic processes in the body and are freely interchanged back and forth between reactions. I used to have a big poster in my room of all the body’s major metabolic reactions and how they are all connected. And what scares me most is that I understood it and could explain it. I could probably eek through it now, but it would be rough.
Still got it.
Hope this sort of answers your question. If you have a more specific question, let me know. And if you were just joking, HAHAHA and joke’s on me for writing this long response.
Time well spent.
Can I get my retroactive refund for O. Chem yet?
No, I did not make this madness. A classmate of mine did. But I sho nuff printed it out and hung it on my wall. For those who care, this is what we call “The Big Picture”. It’s how glycolysis (glucose breakdown to pyruvate), gluconeogenesis (making glucose from pyruvate), glycogenisis (making glycogen from glucose), glycogenolysis (breaking down glycogen into glucose), the TCA cycle (making energy for the electron transport chain), fatty acid production and degradation, ketone body formation, and the electron transport chain (making energy for you!)all interact with each other. It’s intense. And I have to memorize it. yay.
As of now, I’ve got glycolysis and gluconeogenesis down. maybe a little TCA. eek. and yet I still take time to update this blog. Hmmmmm….
P.S. How awesome was the weather today? Wonderful temperature, no overwhelming sun to heat up my car.
