What is the Difference Between Lactate and Lactate Dehydrogenase

The key difference between lactate and lactate dehydrogenase is that lactate is the deprotonated form of lactic acid, whereas lactate dehydrogenase is an enzyme that is important in converting lactate into pyruvate.

Lactic acid is an organic acidic compound having the chemical formula CH3CH(OH)COOH. We can isolate it as a white solid substance that is miscible with water. The aqueous solution is colorless. There are natural sources of lactic acid, and production can be done artificially, as well. The conjugate base of lactic acid is lactate anion. Lactate converts into pyruvate in the presence of lactate dehydrogenase enzyme.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Lactate  
3. What is Lactate Dehydrogenase
4. Lactate vs Lactate Dehydrogenase in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Lactate vs Lactate Dehydrogenase

What is Lactate?

Lactate is an anion and the conjugate base of lactic acid. It is a hydroxy monocarboxylic acid anion that forms from the deprotonation of the carboxy group in lactic acid. Generally, our muscle cells, red blood cells, brain, and other tissues can produce this anion during the anaerobic energy production process. In other words, lactate is the end product of anaerobic metabolism, and it generates in skeletal muscles, brain, erythrocytes, skin and gut as a disposal product by gluconeogenesis in the liver and complete oxidation. Therefore, lactate anion can be found in low levels in our blood.

However, the increased formation of lactate anion or the decreased removal of this anion can cause lactic acidosis. There are two types as type A lactic acidosis and type B lactic acidosis. Among them, type A lactic acidosis occurs due to the increase of lactate formation by tissue hypoxia. Type B lactic acidosis occurs due to ingestions of drugs and toxins, which cause increased production of formation.

What is Lactate Dehydrogenase?

Lactate dehydrogenase is an enzyme that can convert lactate into pyruvate. We can denote this name as LDH enzyme or LD enzyme. We can find this enzyme nearly in all living cells. Moreover, this enzyme can catalyze both forward and reverse reactions of the conversion of lactate into pyruvate.

This enzyme converts lactate into pyruvate and back by converting NAD+ into NADH. In other words, a dehydrogenase enzyme can transfer a hydride from one molecule to another. We can find lactate dehydrogenase enzyme in body tissues, including blood cells and heart muscle because this enzyme is released when the tissues are damaged.

When there is a high concentration of lactate dehydrogenase, the lactate dehydrogenase enzyme tends to exhibit a feedback inhibition which causes the rate of conversion of pyruvate to lactate to decrease. Moreover, this enzyme can catalyze the dehydrogenation of 2-hydroxybutyrate.

When considering the chemical structure of the lactate dehydrogenase enzyme, in humans, this enzyme uses His(193) as the proton acceptor and works along with the coenzyme and substrate binding sites. This His(193) active site can be found in the LDH enzyme of many other animals as well.

What is the Difference Between Lactate and Lactate Dehydrogenase?

The conjugate base of lactic acid is lactate anion. Lactate converts into pyruvate in the presence of lactate dehydrogenase enzyme. The key difference between lactate and lactate dehydrogenase is that lactate is the deprotonated form of lactic acid, whereas lactate dehydrogenase is an enzyme that is important in converting lactate into pyruvate.

The following infographic lists the differences between lactate and lactate dehydrogenase in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Lactate vs Lactate Dehydrogenase

The conjugate base of lactic acid is lactate anion. Lactate converts into pyruvate in the presence of lactate dehydrogenase enzyme. The key difference between lactate and lactate dehydrogenase is that lactate is the deprotonated form of lactic acid, whereas lactate dehydrogenase is an enzyme that is important in converting lactate into pyruvate.

Reference:

1. “Lactate.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Database, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Image Courtesy:

1. “7 Milchsäure” By Schemiker (talk) – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “1i10” By Deposition authors: Read, J.A., Winter, V.J., Eszes, C.M., Sessions, R.B., Brady, R.L.;visualization author: User:Astrojan – RCSB (CC BY 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia