Metabolism of Glycogen in Brain White Matter

Brain glycogen is a specialized energy buffer, rather than a conventional reserve. In the rodent optic nerve, a central white matter tract, it is located in astrocytes, where it is converted to lactate, which is then shuttled intercellularly from the astrocyte to the axon. This basic pathway was elucidated from non-physiological experiments in which the nerve was deprived of exogenous glucose. However, this shuttling also occurs under physiological conditions, when tissue energy demand is increased above baseline levels in the presence of normoglycemic concentrations of glucose. The signaling mechanism by which axons alert astrocytes to their increased energy requirement is likely to be elevated interstitial K⁺, the inevitable consequence of increased neuronal activity.