Galactolysis

Galactolysis refers to the catabolism of galactose.

In the liver, galactose is converted through the Leloir pathway to glucose 6-phosphate  in the following reactions:

galacto-               uridyl                phosphogluco- kinase              transferase                mutase gal > gal 1 P --> glc 1 P ---> glc 6 P                            ^           \ /            v                         UDP-glc       UDP-gal ^            /                             \___________/                               epimerase Mutations in the enzymes involved in galactolysis result in metabolic disorders.

Metabolic disorders
There are 3 types of galactosemia or galactose deficiencies: