Effects of Starvation on Metabolism of Glucose in Juvenile Silurus meridonalis

To investigate the effects of starvation with different time courses on hepatosomatic index (HIS), glycogen, serum glucose and activities of glycolytic key enzymes(HK,GK) in juvenile Silurus meridonalis. The fish were starved for 0,1,2,4,8 weeks respectively at (20±1)℃.Samples were taken after the process. The starvation for O week is set as the control group. The results showed that, as starvation continued, HSI and glycogen decreased significantly. Fasting for 1 week ,the HSI was (2.44±0.36)mg·g-1, the liver glycogen was (35.20±2.25)mg·g-1 and the muscle glycogen was (30.69±10.24) mg ·kg-1 respectively; all of the three indices were significanely below original value (p<0.05). During the experiment, HSI took on a similar trend with liver glycogen. Fasting for 4 weeks, serum glucose had began to significanely below orginal value (p<0.05), but it had a lesser variation extent. The activities of HK and GK had began to significanely below original value after fasting for 4 weeks (p<0.05), and the two indices had a similar trend. So, it is suggested that during the stavation, the fish mainly use glucide as energy source, mobilize the substances in liver firstly and the change of liver glycogen has a direct relationship with the stability of serum glucose;and the starvation can restrain the activities of HK and GK, whereas, short-time starvation(two weeks) has a trivial effect.