Anabolism Catabolism and pH

Question

Hello! My professor told us that anabolism lowers pH and catabolism elevates the pH. I cannot find any explanation on the internet. Or maybe I am searcging it all wrong.

Could you please give me an example of an anabolic reaction tht rises the pH and then how the catabolism of the resulted substances that lowers the pH?

I tried with anabolism of glucose into ATP - I know i it gives me ATP and H2O and CO2 that is considered to elevates the pH, but then I cannot explain myself how the catabolism of ATP gives a lower pH. Thank you so much for the time and effort to teach me!

Answer 1

You're on the right track with the catabolism of ATP releasing CO2.

In the red blood cells, CO2 is combined with water to form H2CO3 (carbonic acid) and almost immediately degrades into (H+) hydrogen ion and (HCO3-) bicarbonate ion.

The increased presence of (H+) lowers the pH. If you need a deeper explanation of the relationship between the hydrogen ion and pH, there are plenty of resources on Google, or you can ask a chemistry tutor here :)