Everything You Need to Know About Gluconeogenesis for the MCAT + 2 Practice Questions

We discuss the most high-yield concepts that you will need to know about gluconeogenesis for your MCAT exam, including the most high-yield concept: when does it happen? It occurs predominantly in the fasting state. Gluconeogenesis predominantly occurs in the liver, though there is a small amount that occurs in the kidney. We also discuss the substrates for gluconeogenesis, for which there are three major categories to know: lactate, glycerol-3P (derived from triglycerides), and glucogenic amino acids (a common one being alanine). Hormones that regulate gluconeogenesis include glucagon (released from the alpha-islet cells of the pancreas), insulin (released from the beta-islet cells of the pancreas), epinephrine, and cortisol. We also discuss the irreversible steps of glycolysis and how we bypass them with glucose-6-phosphatase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, pyruvate carboxylase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. We also go over two practice questions that represent the type of content that could be tested on free-standing MCAT questions. Chapters: (00:00) - Basics of Gluconeogenesis (02:51) - Enzymes of Gluconeogenesis (06:30) - Biochemical Pathway (09:47) - Practice Questions #gluconeogenesis #mcat2025 #gluconeogenesismcat #mcat #mcatstudy #mcatgluconeogenesis