Summary
1. Dextrose was administered to one group of rats by stomach-tube and to another group by intravenous injection. Determinations of hepatic glycogen were made three hours after giving the sugar. Control experiments with water and saline solution were performed.
2. In normal rats and rats with hepatic damage produced by injections of phosphorus, oral or intravenous administration of equal amounts of dextrose led to an approximately equal deposition of glycogen in the liver.
3. In animals with extreme damage to the liver, very little glycogen was deposited when either method was used.
4. By increasing the amount of dextrose given intravenously above the maximal rate of intestinal absorption, the deposition of glycogen in normal rats was increased. Under similar conditions in animals with hepatic damage, the increase in glycogen was insignificant.
5. The application of this study to the treatment of diseases of the liver with dextrose is discussed.
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References
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From the Department of Medicine, University of California Medical School, San Francisco.
Aided by a grant from the Christine Breon Fund for Medical Research.
Read at the Annual Meeting of the American Gastro-Enterological Association, Atlantic City, June 8–9, 1937.
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Althausen, T.L., Stockholm, M. Deposition of glycogen in normal and in experimentally damaged livers after oral and intravenous administration of dextrose. American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition 4, 752–758 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000445
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000445