KIVO Med
Glycogen metabolism: storing, mobilising, and regulating glucose
Understand glycogen structure, synthesis, breakdown, reciprocal regulation, and glycogen storage diseases.
- 43 explained questions
- 24 flashcards
- 166 estimated course minutes
Updated
What you will learn
- Describe branched glycogen structure and its distribution in liver and muscle.
- Follow glycogen synthesis from glucose activation through chain branching.
- Explain digestive, cytosolic, and lysosomal glycogen breakdown.
- Relate hormones, allostery, and phosphorylation to glycogen synthesis or breakdown.
- Identify the main glycogen storage diseases and their predominant tissue.
Course outline
A reserve whose structure enables speed
Glycogen is a highly branched cytosolic homopolymer; its many ends allow rapid storage and mobilization.
16 min
Prepare activated glucose for glycogenesis
Glucose is phosphorylated, converted into G1P, then activated as UDP-glucose before polymer incorporation.
18 min
Prime, elongate, and branch glycogen
Glycogenin creates the primer, glycogen synthase makes α(1→4) chains, and branching enzyme creates α(1→6) bonds.
22 min
Distinguish glycogen digestion from tissue glycogenolysis
Dietary glycogen is hydrolysed in the digestive tract; cellular glycogen is phosphorolysed in liver and muscle.
18 min
Phosphorolyse chains then remove branches
Phosphorylase releases G1P to the limit dextrin; two debranching activities move three residues then hydrolyse branched glucose.
22 min
Direct G6P between export, glycolysis, and lysosome
Liver and muscle form G6P, but only liver dephosphorylates it for export; a minor lysosomal route explains Pompe disease.
20 min
Choose between storage and mobilization
Allostery, phosphorylation, and hormones regulate glycogen synthase and phosphorylase in opposite directions.
28 min
Read glycogen storage diseases by enzyme and tissue
Each glycogenosis blocks a precise operation; liver, muscle, or lysosome determines its dominant expression.
22 min
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