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Using novel imaging methods for studying brain metabolism, University of Kentucky researchers have identified the reservoir for a necessary sugar in the brain. Glycogen serves as a storage depot for the sugar glucose. The ...
May 26, 2021
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Lafora disease is an inherited neurodegenerative condition that initially develops with seizures in adolescence and evolves with progressive degeneration of the nervous system to death, about ten years after its onset. It ...
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When a group of cyclists set off to climb Mount Etna on the 3rd stage of Giro d'Italia today, they will have definitely eaten large amounts of carbohydrates in the form of pasta, rice or potatoes within the past few days. ...
Oct 5, 2020
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Cancer cells—especially the more aggressive ones—seem to have an ability to change. It's how they evade treatment and spread throughout the body.
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Researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center have made a breakthrough discovery that solves a mystery long forgotten by science and have identified a potentially novel avenue in pre-clinical models to treat ...
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The current idea about how tuberous sclerosis occurs places mTORC1, a protein complex that regulates cell metabolism, as the major driving force behind the disease. But according to a new study published in the Proceedings ...
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In nearly 80 percent of women with ovarian cancer, the disease has already spread to the omentum before it was diagnosed. Within the omentum—a large, energy-dense fat pad that covers the intestines—the cancer grows even ...
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In 2009, Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100-meter dash, thanks in large part to a carb called glycogen. This molecule is stored in skeletal muscle and later released to fuel short and intense bouts of physical activity. ...
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A new method of stimulating the renewal of living stem cells in tooth pulp using an Alzheimer's drug has been discovered by a team of researchers at King's College London.
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Glycogen is a molecule that serves as the secondary long-term energy storage in animal and fungal cells, with the primary energy stores being held in adipose tissue. Glycogen is made primarily by the liver and the muscles, but can also be made by glycogenesis within the brain and stomach.
Glycogen is the analogue of starch, a glucose polymer in plants, and is sometimes referred to as animal starch, having a similar structure to amylopectin but more extensively branched and compact than starch. Glycogen is a polymer of α(1→4) glycosidic bonds linked, with α(1→6)-linked branches. Glycogen is found in the form of granules in the cytosol/cytoplasm in many cell types, and plays an important role in the glucose cycle. Glycogen forms an energy reserve that can be quickly mobilized to meet a sudden need for glucose, but one that is less compact than the energy reserves of triglycerides (lipids).
In the liver hepatocytes, glycogen can compose up to eight percent of the fresh weight (100–120 g in an adult) soon after a meal. Only the glycogen stored in the liver can be made accessible to other organs. In the muscles, glycogen is found in a low concentration (one to two percent of the muscle mass). However, the amount of glycogen stored in the body—especially within the muscles, liver, and red blood cells—mostly depends on physical training, basal metabolic rate, and eating habits such as intermittent fasting. Small amounts of glycogen are found in the kidneys, and even smaller amounts in certain glial cells in the brain and white blood cells. The uterus also stores glycogen during pregnancy to nourish the embryo.
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