Glycine metabolism in rat kidney cortex slices

When rat kidney cortex slices were incubated with glycine or [1-14C]glycine, after correcting for metabolite changes with control slices, product formation and glycine utilization fitted the requirements of the equation: 2 Glycine leads to ammonia + CO2 + serine. Evidence is presented that degradation via glyoxylate, by oxidation or transamination, is unlikely to have any significant role in kidney glycine catabolism. It is concluded that glycine metabolism in rat kidney is largely via glycine cleavage closely coupled with serine formation. 1-C decarboxylation and urea formation with glycine in rat hepatocyte suspensions were somewhat greater than decarboxylation or ammonia formation in kidney slices, showing that in the rat, potentially, the liver is quantitatively the more important organ in glycine catabolism. There was no evidence of ammonia formation from glycine with rat brain cortex, heart, spleen or diaphragm and 1-C decarboxylation was very weak.