Talk:Ketone bodies
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Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · history · refresh · how to use this template) I am a biochemistry professor who teaches this material to medical students. The article needs work, in part because there are a lot of things that are not quite right. Contrary to what the article says or implies: (1) Many tissues use ketone bodies as a fuel, not just the heart and brain; (2)Blood glucose does not drop during a fast, but stays remarkably constant; the rise in ketone bodies can be traced back to an increased in fatty acid release by adipose tissue; (3) The percentage of energy the brain gets from ketone bodies does reach 70% after a prolonged fast, but I don't know where the author got the numbers for 3 and 4 days of fasting; (4)The comment about needing glucose for long thin axons is something I have never seen before. The references are really weak. The author of this article should be working from a textbook of medical biochemistry, such as "Mark's Basic Medical Biochemistry." Mroseman4 (talk) 22:32, 1 April 2008 (UTC) |
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[edit] Definition
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF KETONE?
- "Ketone" is a term from organic chemistry. It is a functional group composed of a carbon-oxygen double bond attached to two R groups. Acetone is the simplest molecule containing a ketone; in it, its two R groups are methyls. Hope that helps, David Iberri (talk) 19:15, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
The nomenclature is really confusing. "Ketone bodies" is a term that was probably originated by clinical chemists, and is very useful in the context of physiological chemistry. An organic chemist would call acetone a ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate a beta-hydroxyacid, and beta-ketoacetate a beta-ketoacid. Biochemists also use the terms "acetoacetate" and "acetoacetic acid" interchangeably when the ionic form is not important to the disucssion.
Mroseman4 (talk) 22:43, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Merge from Beta-hydroxybutyrate
The article currently at Beta-hydroxybutyrate is really about ketone bodies in general and has nothing specifically about Beta-hydroxybutyrate. It should therefore be merged into this article. --Ed (Edgar181) 20:38, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
The material currently at Beta-hydroxybutyrate is definitely redundant with ketone bodies. However, separate articles on the acetone & acetoacetate are able to exist independently of the article on "ketone bodies". This indicates to me that enough material might exist for Beta-hydroxybutyrate to stand on its own. --Uthbrian (talk) 01:02, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The Long Thin Axon!
I added a cn template to The brain retains some need for glucose, because ketone bodies can be broken down for energy only in the mitochondria, and brain cells' long thin axons are too far from mitochondria. because it doesn't specify what exactly is going on at the other end of the long thin axon that changes glucose into energy without mitochondria in a manner that makes it superior to intercellular propagation of ATP from the mitochondria. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zaphraud (talk • contribs) 22:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)
Reference, please. I never heard of this; it is not in any biochemistry text I have.
Mroseman4 (talk) 22:49, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] "-ate" is not the same thing as "-ic acid"
This article refers to the molecule name "acetoacetate" as a synonym for "acetoacetic acid" (similar treatment for ß-hydroxybutyrate). It's not. Acetoacetate is not acidic. Acetoacetate is the 'conjugate base' of acetic acid and does not contribute to acidosis. If, for example, a quantity of sodium acetoacetate was introduced into the body, it would result in a 'higher' pH. It's perhaps a small distinction, but in the interest of being encyclopedic... 151.151.73.168 (talk) 03:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
