where is glycogen as starch stored in the body?

Answer 1

Liver (hepatocytes) and muscle cells

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen#Glycogen_in_muscle_and_other_cells

Function and regulation of liver glycogen

As a carbohydrate meal is eaten and digested, blood glucose levels rise, and the pancreas secretes insulin. Glucose from the portal vein enters the liver cells (hepatocytes). Insulin acts on the hepatocytes to stimulate the action of several enzymes, including glycogen synthase. Glucose molecules are added to the chains of glycogen as long as both insulin and glucose remain plentiful. In this postprandial or "fed" state, the liver takes in more glucose from the blood than it releases.

After a meal has been digested and glucose levels begin to fall, insulin secretion is reduced, and glycogen synthesis stops. About four hours after a meal, glycogen begins to be broken down to be converted again to glucose. Glycogen phosphorylase is the primary enzyme of glycogen breakdown. For the next 8–12 hours, glucose derived from liver glycogen will be the primary source of blood glucose to be used by the rest of the body for fuel.

Glucagon is another hormone produced by the pancreas, which in many respects serves as a counter-signal to insulin. When the blood sugar begins to fall below normal, glucagon is secreted in increasing amounts. It stimulates glycogen breakdown into glucose even when insulin levels are abnormally high.


Glycogen in muscle and other cells

Muscle cell glycogen appears to function as an immediate reserve source of available glucose for muscle cells. Other cells that contain small amounts use it locally as well. Muscle cells lack the ability to pass glucose into the blood, so the glycogen they store internally is destined for internal use and is not shared with other cells, unlike liver cells.

Answer 2

exciting question. i bypass to ask my biology instructor approximately it. I recommend, starch is made up of amylopectin and amylose. Glycogen has a similar shape to amylopectin, yet glycogen shows greater branching. i assume it has something to do with the reality that animals are greater metabolically energetic and so want something that's particularly broken all the way down to glucose for rapid uptake by using respiration cells. Starch is greater compact then fat and glycogen and so is harder to hydrolyse. additionally, glycogen is broken down by using the hormone insulin, that are absent in flora. Starch is hydrolysed by using the enzyme amylase. i don't recognize if I replied you're question or not, it became right into a stressful one! i don't recognize, won't have the ability to truly answer your question.

Answer 3

Any glucose not needed by the body is stored, mostly as fat, but 10% gets stored as glycogen in the liver. It is then available to be used as 'instant energy' when your blood sugar drops.

Answer 4

In your liver. It is released when a hormone called glucogen is produced. (Glucagon is synthetic glucogen).