360 RETROGRESSIVE PROCESSES 



There is very little in heart muscle or testicle, and none in the 

 ovaries and corpus luteum or in the mammary glands, although 

 it may be present in their fat-cells. Glycogen is most abundant 

 in the uterus at the time of child-birth, and is abundant in the 

 placenta. After pancreas extirpation, Fichera ! observed a dis- 

 appearance of all visible glycogen, except a little in the cartilage 

 and stratified epithelium ; hence he considers the glycogen- 

 content as a function of cell nourishment. Fat and glycogen 

 often occur together (which is contrary to Rosenfeld's statement), 

 although one may be present without the other (Gierke). 



There has been some diversity of opinion as to whether gly- 

 cogen occurs as granules in the living cell, or whether the gran- 

 ules are formed from a homogeneous substance by hardening 

 fluids. In view of the clear-cut, definite spaces it may leave in 

 cells when dissolved out, glycogen probably occurs as granules, 

 especially when present in abnormally large quantities. It has 

 been suggested that the intraepithelial hyaline bodies (Russell's 

 fuchsin bodies) are glycogenic, which idea is probably not cor- 

 rect. Habershon has also suggested that eosinophile granules 

 are either glycogen or related to it. The presence of glycogen 

 in the cells seems to cause no injury to the cytoplasm, and if it 

 again disappears, the cells become quite normal. 2 



GLYCOGEN IN PATHOLOGICAL PROCESSES 



According to the results obtained by Fichera and Gierke, it 

 seems probable that glycogen accumulation is produced under 

 the same conditions as are fatty changes ; i. e., when oxidation 

 is locally or generally impaired. Fat and glycogen are, there- 

 fore, often found together in the margins of infarcts and of 

 tubercles, and in heart muscle with fatty changes due to severe 

 anemia. The glycogen, being more labile, seems to disappear 

 early when the cells become necrotic, and hence glycogen is not 

 present in older necrotic areas where the fat still persists. (This 

 probably accounts for the frequently repeated statement that 

 glycogen and fat do not occur together.) Whether the glycogen 

 can be transformed into fat, perhaps forming an intermediary 

 stage in a transformation of proteid into fat, has not been deter- 

 mined, but there seems to be little doubt that it is infiltrated 



1 Ziegler's Beitr., 1904 (36), 273, literature. 



2 Yet Teissier (Compt. Kend. Soc. Biol., 1900 (52), 790) believes the amount 

 normally present in the liver is strongly bactericidal, and in a later publication 

 (tirid., 1902 (54), 1098) considers that it is toxic to liver-cells. Wendelstadt 

 (Cent. f. Bact., Abt. 1, 1903 (34), 831) found that under certain conditions gly- 

 cogen impedes hemolysis by normal serum. 



