Liver is a highly intriguing organ due to its capacity to regenerate after partial resection (partial hepatectomy, PHx). In this PhD project, the student will study altered metabolic pathways following PHx, which is linked very fast proliferation of liver during its regeneration. Assumtions as well as preliminary data point to a switch from salvage pathways of pyrimidine and purine synthesis to de novo pathways, critically involving the mitochondrial function. For increased biomass needs during liver regeneraiton, there is need for fast synthesis of amino acids. All these metabolites use glutamin as the substrate. This implies that its synthesis will be powered by diversion of the uea cycle to aminatino of glutamate. This project will utilise advanced methods of biochemistry and cell biology, as well as stable isotope labelling followed by metabolomics, exclusively using mouse models of PHx.
