Abstract
SummaryType 2 diabetes incidence continues to increase rapidly. This disease is characterized by a breakdown in blood glucose homeostasis. The impairment of glycemic control is linked to the structure of glycogen, a highly branched glucose polymer. Liver glycogen, a major controller of blood sugar, comprises small β particles which can link together to form larger α particles. These degrade to glucose more slowly than β particles, enabling a controlled release of blood glucose. The α particles in diabetic mice are however easily broken down into β particles, which degrade more quickly. Because this may lead to higher blood glucose, understanding this diabetes-associated breakdown of α-particle molecular structure may help in the development of diabetes therapeutics. We review the extraction of liver glycogen, its molecular structure, and how this structure is affected by diabetes and then use this knowledge to make postulates to guide the development of strategies to help mitigate type 2 diabetes.
Highlights
Diabetes has become an increasingly pressing global concern, with the incidence growing rapidly over recent decades in both developed and developing countries, probably due to changes in lifestyles
Type 2 diabetes, accounting for ~90% of diabetes cases, requires effective and long-lasting treatment, due to its chronic and debilitating nature (Wu et al, 2019). Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are related to insulin, a hormone produced in pancreatic b cells that signals the removal of glucose from the blood and stimulates the storage of glucose in the form of glycogen (Sullivan and Forbes, 2019)
Glycogen is a hyper-branched and randomly branched polymer of glucose, containing a small but important amount of protein (Meyer et al, 1970; Stapleton et al, 2010). It provides for the storage of energy in a wide range of organisms and provides energy to cells on demand and storage of glucose when that molecule is in abundance (Sullivan et al, 2015a; Besford et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2019a)
Summary
SUMMARY Type 2 diabetes incidence continues to increase rapidly. This disease is characterized by a breakdown in blood glucose homeostasis. A major controller of blood sugar, comprises small b particles which can link together to form larger a particles. These degrade to glucose more slowly than b particles, enabling a controlled release of blood glucose. The a particles in diabetic mice are broken down into b particles, which degrade more quickly Because this may lead to higher blood glucose, understanding this diabetes-associated breakdown of a-particle molecular structure may help in the development of diabetes therapeutics. We review the extraction of liver glycogen, its molecular structure, and how this structure is affected by diabetes and use this knowledge to make postulates to guide the development of strategies to help mitigate type 2 diabetes
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