Effect of hormones on the trichloracetic acid extractable glycogen in skeletal muscles.

Abstract

COLD 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) removes from homogenized liver and muscle tissue respectively, a relatively constant amount of glycogen, somewhat less than the total amount present as determined by the usual hot alkali method of extraction (Bloom et al., 1951). Whenever glycogenolytic agents (epinephrine, nerve stimulation) reduce the glycogen in muscle tissue, it is the TCA extractable fraction which decreases markedly (Bloom and Knowlton, 1953). These investigators attribute a “labile” quality to the TCA soluble fraction, in contrast to the more resistant “residual” glycogen fraction which is relatively unaffected after mild stimulation of these tissues by glycogenolytic agents. Since both cortisone and growth hormone vary in their ability to influence glycogen deposition in different muscles (Leonard, 1953) and in their ability to inhibit the glycogenolytic action of epinephrine (Wortman and Leonard, 1953; Leonard and Ringler, 1954), a possible explanation of these phenomena was sought in a study o...