Metabolic Significance of HMP Pathway
Having gone through the HMP pathway, you would have got some idea about the significance of this alternative oxidative pathway for the metabolism of glucose. Let us enumerate the significance one by one:
We have seen that CO, is the characteristic product in the HMP pathway, which is not produced in the Embden-Meyerhof pathway. CO, produced in this pathway is used for the synthesis of fatty acids and purine bases.
The reduced form of NADP (NADPH) is utilized for the synthesis of fatty acids, cholesterol, steroids and also in the synthesis of amino acids via glutamate dehydrogenase outside the mitochondria. In fact tissues specializing in active lipogenesis - liver, adipose tissue and the lactating mammary glands - also posses an active HMP pathway.