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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Spectrophotometric Methods for the Study of Eukaryotic Glycogen Metabolism
Published on: August 19, 2021
Glycogen β-particles surface characterized by a combination of size exclusion chromatography and pyrene excimer
Damin Kim1, Sanjay Patel1, Jean Duhamel1
1Institute for Polymer Research, Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
Abstract:
Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and pyrene excimer formation (PEF) experiments were conducted to characterize the local density profile inside a glycogen sample before (Glycogen) and after (Gly-β-LD) treatment with β-amylase. These experiments were conducted to assess whether the density at the periphery of the glycogen particles was very high to limit access to proteins involved in the metabolism of glycogen as predicted by the Tier model or low as suggested by the Gilbert model. SEC analysis indicated that the density inside the Glycogen and Gly-β-LD samples remained constant with particle size and was not affected by β-amylolysis. Analysis of the PEF experiments conducted on the Glycogen and Gly-β-LD samples labeled with 1-pyrenebutyric acid showed that the particles have a dense interior and loose corona. The conclusions reached by the SEC and PEF experiments agree with the Gilbert model and have implications for the association of glycogen β-particles into larger α-particles.
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