Intermediary Metabolism and Energetics during Murine Early Embryogenesis

All living cells rely on intermediary metabolism to maintain an adequate state of energetics. Considerable progress has been made over the last century in defining many of the pathways and regulatory mechanisms of intermediary metabolism. Following from this mechanistic understanding, much insight has been gained into how organisms modulate the metabolism of their various cell types to achieve energy homeostasis during different physiologic states and developmental stages. In mammals, the prenatal period is less well characterized in terms of energy metabolism, principally due to technical difficulties associated with the small size of and limited accessibility to samples.