The method for calculation of the energy density of culture media based on stoichiometrical patterns of the biological oxidative process

The proposed method for calculation of the energy value of culture media is based on stoichiometric properties of biological oxidative reactions in the cell and allows for assessment of the nutritional value of organic substrates with consideration of their elemental composition. Three organogen elements (carbon, hydrogen and oxygen) participate in the third stage of catabolism, which is the universal way of biological oxidation of organic nutritive substrate compounds. Their content in the composition of an organic compound (or food substrate) allows for calculation of the amount of energy converted into work during cellular metabolism. The idea to calculate the energy value of a food substrate is based on the principle of energetic conjugation, according to which the useful energy of food substrates within the cell is accumulated in the energy-rich adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bonds formed by biological oxidation of the substrate. Calculation of the energy values of organic substrate is traditionally based on the energy of the abiotic oxidation. The proportion of the useful energy converted into work is not considered in this case. The inherent problem of this approach is that the amount of ATP has been calculated only for several universal metabolites with known oxidative pathways, such as pyruvate and acetate. The proposed method is based on stoichiometric patterns and makes it possible to calculate the amount of ATP from the elemental composition of compounds and the mass fractions of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The results of calculation of biological oxidation energy obtained by this method coincide with the published data on biological oxidation metabolites in the citric acid cycle. The presented method, based on the composition of the compounds, allows for calculation of the energy value of any food substrate or culture medium containing a variety of organic compounds, including the case when their metabolic pathway of biological oxidation is unknown and the calculation of the bioenergetic value seems impossible.