Mechanisms that elevate the glucose concentration of muscle and liver in yellow perch (Perca flavescens Mitchill) after exercise–handling stress
To identify the mechanisms that elevate the glucose concentration of muscle and liver in yellow perch after exercise–handling, we exercised–handled perch for 10 min and measured subsequent changes in the glucose, glycogen, lactate, and pyruvate content of liver and muscle. By 15 min after the start of exercise–handling, the average glucose concentration had increased from 40 to 200 mg/100 g in liver, from about 6 to 18 mg/100 g in muscle, and in one of two experiments the average liver glycogen level declined from 4.0 to 2.2% wet weight. The increases in liver and muscle glucose content within 15 min were too large to be accounted for by the disappearance of muscle lactate (via the Cori cycle) and likely resulted from glycogenolysis or gluconeogenesis (from nonlactate substrates) in the liver. However, the Cori cycle, gluconeogenesis from glycerol and amino acids, and inhibition of glucose catabolism by preferential oxidation of lactate could all have contributed to prolonging hyperglycemia in muscle and liver, which lasted more than 12 h. Perch excreted about 7% of the total muscle lactate burden produced during exercise–handling stress.