Lactic Acid Fermentation In Muscle Cells

941 Words2 Pages

Did you know what makes your muscles sore, fatigued, and cramped up? This would be lactic acid fermentation in muscle cells. As stated in the book (Postlethwait, 2006, p. 134) “Lactic acid fermentation is when an enzyme converts pyruvic acid, made during glycolysis, into another three-carbon compound, called lactic acid.” Lactic acid fermentation occurs because the muscle cells use up oxygen more rapidly than it can be delivered. This causes the muscle cells to switch from cellular respiration to lactic acid fermentation, as also stated in the biology book. (Postlethwait 2006, p. 134) An example of when this happens would be when a person is involved in some sort of demanding exercise, such as running a marathon, as stated on the CK-12 website. (CK-12 …show more content…

1)
Although lactic acid fermentation has its own process, for this type of fermentation to ever start glycolysis has to take place. Glycolysis is where glucose is oxidized to produce pyruvic acid. This process has a general summary of about four steps. The first step would be, two phosphate groups attach to a molecule of glucose, which forms a six-carbon compound that now has two phosphate groups. These phosphate groups are supplied by two ATP molecules, which are then converted back into ADP. The second step consists of the six-carbon compound being split into two three-carbon molecules called G3P (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate). In the third step those two G3P molecules are oxidized, and receive a phosphate group. This creates a new-three carbon compound. Also in this third step there is a reduction to two molecules of NAD+ to NADH. The fourth step is the final step. In the fourth step the phosphate groups added in step 1 and 3 are removed from the three-carbon compounds

Open Document