THE LIGHT AND ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS OF POLYGLUCOSE HISTOCHEMICALLY SYNTHESIZED IN THE RAT SKELETAL MUSCLES BY ENZYMES, PARTICULARLY PHOSPHORYLASE AND BRANCHING GLYCOSYLTRANSFERASE

• Published in: ACTA HISTOCHEMICA ET CYTOCHEMICA Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 1 - 17
• Main Author: MIYAYAMA, HARUHIKO
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sendai JAPAN SOCIETY OF HISTOCHEMISTRY AND CYTOCHEMISTRY 1972; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• ISSN: 0044-5991; 1347-5800
• DOI: 10.1267/ahc.5.1

Polyglucose synthesis was investigated by incubating the rat skeletal muscle in vitro using the media containing glucose-1-phosphate under the electron microscope and the results were compared with those of its iodinestaining under the light microscope. In the usual skeletal muscle, apart from the soleus muscle, polyglucose of α-1, 4-linkage with longer outer chain stained blue with iodine and it appeared in large white fibers. It revealed an amorphous aggregation containing a finer granular appearance with a diameter from 100Å to 150Å under the electron microscope. Such polyglucose deposition appeared to be in the subsarcolemmic and sarcoplasmic matrices of these fibers, which agreed with Takeuchi and Sasaki's findings. The branched polyglucose of α-D-1, 4-linkage with shorter outer chain, stained red with iodine, was demonstrated as electronmicroscopically larger particles with a diameter from 550Å to 800Å (average 632Å), which were most predominant in number and deposited not only in the subsarcolemmic matrices but also in the sarcoplasmic ones of the small red fiber of white muscles. Polyglucoses varied in a particle size from 250Å to 450Å in diameter were predominantly synthesized in the intermediate fiber of the white muscle and they were stained violet with iodine histochemically. These particles, different in size and density from native glycogen particles, appeared only by the electron histochemical procedure. They were stained with varied density by lead staining under the electron microscopic technique, compared with the native glycogen particles. However, there were sometimes some patterns of different areas occupied by small groups of newly formed polyglucose particles, which were different in their particle size and electron density in each localized area.