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.