Molecular Structural Differences between Type-2-Diabetic and Healthy Glycogen

Glycogen is a highly branched glucose polymer functioning as a glucose buffer in animals. Multiple-detector size exclusion chromatography and fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis were used to examine the structure of undegraded native liver glycogen (both whole and enzymatically del;ranched) as a function of molecular size, isolated from the liver; of healthy and db/db mice (the latter a type 2 diabetic model). Both the fully branched and debranched levels of glycogen structure showed fundamental differences between glycogen from healthy and db/db mice. Healthy glycogen had a greater population of large particles, with more a particles (tightly linked assemblages of smaller,8 particles) than glycogen from db/db mice. These structural differences suggest a new understanding of type 2 diabetes.