A metabolic pathway is a sequence of chemical steps that converts one substance into another inside the body, with each step run by a dedicated helper protein called an enzyme. Breaking sugar down for energy is a metabolic pathway, and so is building a fat molecule up. The purpose of such a pathway is the material change itself, not the passing of a message.

Why it matters here

Records that talk about energy, fat or glucose are usually pointing at a metabolic pathway rather than at anything a person would feel directly. It also sets up what happens to compounds themselves, because the body has pathways for taking apart substances that arrive from outside, peptides included.

Also called

• metabolic pathway
• metabolic pathways
• biochemical pathway
• metabolism
• metabolic route

Metabolism in everyday speech means how fast someone burns energy, but in this sense it means the whole set of chemical conversions, including the ones that build things up rather than break them down.

Compounds carrying this term

None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.

See also

• Signalling pathway — Body and drug basics
• First-pass metabolism — Body and drug basics
• Mitochondria — Body and drug basics
• Energy Sensing — Biological Pathway