What does it mean if your pyruvate level in your blood comes back high?

Answer 1

It might mean that you're low on thiamine, as it is required for conversion to acetyl-CoA, but this is pretty uncommon if you are otherwise in good health, have an adequate diet, etc.

It might also mean that some other metabolic pathway is not functioning properly. Pyruvate is a key intersection in the network of metabolic pathways, and can be converted to carbohydrates via gluconeogenesis, to fatty acids or energy through acetyl-CoA, to the amino acid alanine and to ethanol. Thus, it unites several key metabolic processes -- and if one of those other pathways becomes obstructed in some way, it might lead to accumulation of pyruvate.

Answer 2

Pyruvate or pyruvic acid is one of the intemediaries in glycolysis. Pyruvate is converted to Acetyl-CoA and enters the Krebs cycle for production of ATP. If your pyruvate level is high, you have alot of substrate for the Krebs cycle. If you have a relative dearth of oxygen, metabolic intermediaries of the Krebs cycle will build up because oxidative phosphorylation cannot take place. This may slow down the Krebs cycle and cause a build up of Acetyl-CoA and pyruvate. This may also prompt pyruvate to be metabolized by other pathways into a ethanol or lactic acid.

Answer 3

You have thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. Thiamine is needed to convert pyruvate into acetyl coenzyme A which is the compound that enters the citric acid cycle. Thiamine deficiency is usually associated with alcoholism (alcohol interferes with absorption of thiamine from your food). In grazing animals, thiamine deficiency can be caused by eating bracken ferns which contain a thiaminase enzyme that destroys any thiamine in the animals' diet.

Although pyruvate does increase during tissue hypoxia (dearth of oxygen), most of it is converted to lactate by fermentation, so measurement of lactate is a better indicator of tissue hypoxia than pyruvate.