Creative Enzymes is a global leader in the development, manufacturing, and supply of enzymes and enzymatic assays for customers. Our prompt service, best customer care, and dedicated approaches have made us the most preferred supplier. Here, we are proud to offer the most reliable activity measurement for glucokinase.

Glucokinase (EC 2.7.1.2), one of the four mammalian hexokinase isoenzymes, is the main enzyme responsible for glucose phosphorylation in hepatocytes and pancreatic islet beta cells. Glucokinase catalyzes the formation of glucose 6-phosphate from glucose and ATP. Glucokinase has different properties from other hexokinases: firstly, it does not display product inhibition by glucose 6-phosphate, and secondly, it possesses a much higher KM for glucose than other hexokinases (5 mM versus 20-130 μM). A key aspect of the physiological function of glucokinase is that the inflexion point of the activity versus glucose concentration curve is near the physiological concentration of glucose. The regulation of activity is related to the existence of at least two conformations, which thus results in allosteric behavior of glucokinase even though it is a monomeric protein. This enzyme involves in various pathways:

• Glycolysis / Gluconeogenesis
• Galactose metabolism
• Starch and sucrose metabolism
• Amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism
• Streptomycin biosynthesis
• Neomycin, kanamycin and gentamicin biosynthesis
• Metabolic pathways
• Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites
• Microbial metabolism in diverse environments
• Biosynthesis of antibiotics

In addition, glucokinase plays an important role in the regulation of glucose metabolism by acting as a glucose sensor. Therefore, the enzyme represents a novel molecular target for drug development in type 2 diabetes. Measurement of the catalytic activity of glucokinase is thus vital for all tests with the enzyme and would also shed light on the design of activators targeting the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Creative Enzymes is unique being one of the few worldwide companies specifically developing and supplying enzyme activity assays. As a reliable supplier, Creative Enzymes is able to offer the precise enzymatic assays for glucokinase. For example, glucokinase can be analyzed by two methods, both dependent upon changes of optical density at 340nm. In the first method, glucose 6-phosphate formation could be coupled to NADP+ reduction with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. In the other assay, ADP formation could be coupled to NADH oxidation with pyruvate kinase and lactic dehydrogenase. A unit of enzyme is defined as the amount catalyzing the formation of 1μM of glucose 6-phosphate per min, at pH 7.0 and 20 °C.

By constantly striving for utmost quality, Creative Enzymes has earned the trust of many customers. Overall, Creative Enzymes has always been chasing the highest level of customer satisfaction and improving the products, services, and quality management system.

Figure: The crystal structure of human glucokinase.
PDB: 1V4S