Estimation of glycogen levels in human colorectal cancer tissue: relationship with cell cycle and tumor outgrowth

Abstract

In this study, we quantitatively measured glycogen levels in tissue samples obtained from tumors, regions adjacent to tumor, and regions of normal colorectum to determine whether the levels were related to cell cycle and cancer growth. Glycogen levels were analyzed in relation to histopathological factors, (tumor size and stage of disease) and cell cycle progression. The glycogen level was found to be highest in the cancer tissue, lower in normal tissue, and lowest in the adjacent tissue. The difference in glycogen level between the cancer tissue and the other two regions was significant (P < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between glycogen level and tumor size, but it was not significant. The level of glycogen in cancer tissues decreased as the stage of the disease progressed, but a significant difference was not found between stages. There was a negative correlation between the glycogen level and the proliferation index. There was a positive correlation between the glycogen level and the proportion of cancer cells in G1 phase, while there was a negative correlation with S and G2M phases. Glycogen levels were highest in cancers with a high proportion of cells in G1, and decreased with progression to S phase. It may be that glycogen is utilized in the progression to S phase, and the cancer tissues are supplied with glycogen from the tumors themselves as well as their adjacent tissues. Cancer growth may be inhibited by artificial control of the glycogen level in the G1 phase of cancer cells.

Direct Measurement of Human Lung Cancerous and Noncancerous Tissues by Fourier Transform Infrared Microscopy: Can an Infrared Microscope Be Used as a Clinical Tool?

“…For diagnosing one tissue sample, it will take about 30 min. The present method may also be applicable to the analysis of other human cancers, such as colorectal cancer tissues in which we found glycogen being a critical factor for their malignancy (11). In addition, since FT-IR-MC costs relatively little and does not require special operator training for collecting and analyzing spectra, it seems to be perhaps the apparatus best-suited to clinical usage, especially in rather small hospitals.…”

“…Among them, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) 2 has been used as a convenient instrument for investigating the biologically important materials in human tissues (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). We have evaluated glycogen levels in human lung (9) and colorectal (11) tissues in relation to the abnormality, histological classification, cell cycle, and outgrowth of the tumors by an infrared spectroscopy. The technique described in those papers is limited for a general utility, however, because it requires pretreatment of the samples as well as quite a large amount of the tissues.…”

Peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids by lipoxygenases drives ferroptosis

“…Glycogen is found mainly in liver and muscle tissues, and the level of glycogen is generally low in other tissues. However, the occurrence of glycogen has been reported in cancer cells from diverse tissue origins that normally do not store glycogen (42)(43)(44). To test the functional role of this metabolic pathway on erastin-induced ferroptosis, we treated cells with either of two GP inhibitors, CP-91149 (45) or GP inhibitor (46), and monitored the effects on erastin sensitivity.…”

Glycogen: A must have storage to survive stressful emergencies

“…[53][54][55] In analogy with the important role of glycogen in survival to stress, glycogen could also be an important molecule that fuels tumorigenesis. Glycogen accumulates in many cancer types including ovarian cancer, 56 kidney cancer, 57 colorectal cancer, 58 bladder cancer, 59 and others. 60 In addition, higher glycogen levels were detected in breast, kidney, bladder, uterus, skin, ovary, and brain cancer cell lines 60 , and recent studies have demonstrated a critical role for glycogen in the survival of cancer cells to hypoxic environments and glucose restriction.…”