Anaerobic Glucose Metabolism

The processes of the body that digest food into chemicals that cells can use for energy and then use those compounds to power bodily operations are called metabolism. To convert food into carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, your body secretes enzymes absorbed by our body cells and utilized to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the fuel for cells, through aerobic or anaerobic metabolic processes. The breakdown of glucose into pyruvate within a cell’s cytoplasm is known as glycolysis. While each glucose molecule produces two ATP, glycolysis provides a direct method for producing energy without oxygen. Anaerobic glycolysis is the term coined for this process of breaking down glucose in the absence of oxygen. Pyruvate is converted into lactate by the cytosolic enzyme lactate dehydrogenase when anaerobic conditions are present. Although the cell does not directly use lactate as a source of energy, this reaction also enables the regeneration of NAD+ from NADH. Lactic acid is a by-product...