GLYCOGEN IN PATHOLOGICAL PROCESSES 363 



become gangrenous, have invariably given a positive iodophilia, 

 and by its absence all these cases can be ruled out in diagnosis. 

 In other words, no septic condition of any severity can be 

 present without a positive reaction. Furthermore, the disap- 

 pearance of the glycogen granules in the leucocytes in from 

 twenty-four to forty-eight hours following crisis with frank 

 resolution in pneumonia, and the thorough drainage of pus in 

 septic cases, is of considerable importance." 



In exudates glycogen is found in the leucocytes as long as 

 they retain their vitality, but disappears soon after retrogressive 

 changes begin ; hence it is not usually present in sterile pus. 

 Loeper l made quantitative estimates of the glycogen in exu- 

 dates, finding from 0.59-0.62 gram per liter in cellular pneumo- 

 coccus pleural effusion, 0.25 gm. in cellular tuberculous effusion, 

 but only traces in serous tuberculous effusion and in an old 

 tuberculous pyothorax. A pneumonic lung contained 0.85 gm. 

 of glycogen per kilo, and traces were found in pneumonic 

 sputum and in the contents of tuberculous cavities. When 

 glycogen solution (1 per cent.) was injected into the peritoneal 

 cavity, the endothelial cells and invading leucocytes became 

 loaded with glycogen granules. 



Glycogenic Infiltration in Diabetes. It is in diabetes, 

 however, that the most marked accumulations of glycogen are 

 found, the granules frequently fusing in the cells into droplets 

 larger than the nucleus ; when dissolved out in ordinary micro- 

 scopic preparations, the clear round space left is exactly like the 

 space left by a fat-droplet, except that the margins show a 

 tendency to take the basic stain for some unknown reason. In 

 even the most extreme cases, however, the nucleus is well pre- 

 served. Glycogen is found particularly in the epithelium of 

 Henle's tubules, in heart muscle, and in the leucocytes, whereas 

 it is greatly diminished in the normal storehouses of glycogen, 

 the liver and muscles. Fiitterer describes masses of glycogen 

 in the cerebral capillaries, resembling an embolic process. Sand- 

 meyer analyzed the organs for glycogen in a case of diabetes, 

 finding the following amounts in percentage of organ weight : 

 liver, 0.613; kidneys, 0.1158; lungs, 0.0442; spleen, 0.07. 

 Experimental diabetes (pancreas extirpation) produces a marked 

 glycogenic infiltration. 



1 Arch. Mdd. Exp., 1902 (14), 576. 



