Using novel imaging methods for studying brain metabolism, University of Kentucky researchers have identified the reservoir for a necessary sugar in the brain. Glycogen serves as a storage depot for the sugar glucose. The laboratories of Ramon Sun, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience, Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and Matthew Gentry, Ph.D., professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry and director of the Lafora Epilepsy Cure Initiative at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, discovered that glucose—the sugar used for cellular energy production—was not the only sugar contained in glycogen in the brain. Brain glycogen also contained another sugar called glucosamine. The full study was recently published in Cell Metabolism.
