Some cells lack mitochondria; they need glucose. And they don’t stop working during starvation because #gluconeogenesis.
Red blood cells, renal medullar cells, and certain cells in the retina. Now do you see why it would be a problem if they stopped working during starvation? Hint: You’d die rather quickly.
Recommended textbook: Stipanuk or Gropper.
Those cells are unable to use conventional oxidative metabolism like the TCA cycle, ß oxidation of fatty acids, oxidation of ketone bodies and most amino acids, and the electron transport chain are all mitochondrial pathways absent from those cells.
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