D-Lactate: Groundbreaking Research No One Is Talking About

About this episode

This episode discusses the role of D-lactate in human metabolism and challenges long-held assumptions about its production and significance.

D-lactate is commonly stated to be exclusively a microbial metabolite. This is found in assumptions within the medical literature for decades even when it was long-known to be false. While D-lactate is indeed made by bacteria, D-lactate is also inarguably and irrefutably produced by human enzymes. In this podcast, moreover, I will argue the following: Microbial contribution to D-lactate in humans under normal circumstances is negligible. I coin the term "the D-lactate shuttle" to describe a role for D-lactate that should eventually make its way into biochemistry textbooks alongside the malate-aspartate shuttle and the glycerol phosphate shuttle. The D-lactate shuttle operates alongside these other shuttles to balance the priorities of conserving cytosolic NAD+, reducing cytosolic acidity, bypassing complex I, or generating ATP. It is uniquely useful as a shuttle when there is an absolute deficit of niacin or NAD(H). D-lactate is an important contributor to gluconeogenesis that could account for up to 11% of it and rival an individual amino acid. While D-lactate concentrations in human plasma are infinitesimal, when the downstream metabolism of D-lactate and L-lactate are blocked…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Masterjohn, PhD

Topics covered

• D-lactate
• microbial metabolites
• gluconeogenesis
• biochemistry
• NAD+ conservation

Keywords

• D-lactate
• microbial contribution
• gluconeogenesis
• NAD+
• biochemistry

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: D-lactate, malate-aspartate shuttle, glycerol phosphate shuttle

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