Glycogen for internal use and is not shared with other cells. This is in contrast to liver cells, which, on demand, readily do break down their stored glycogen into glucose and send it through the blood stream as fuel for other organs. Glycogen was discovered by Claude Bernard. His experiments showed that the liver contained a substance that could give rise to reducing sugar by the action of a "ferment" in the liver. By 1857, he described the isolation of a substance he called ""la matière glycogène"", or "sugar-forming substance". Soon after the discovery of glycogen in the liver, A. Sanson
Glycogen branching enzyme catalyzed by glycogen synthase. Importantly, glycogen synthase can only catalyze the synthesis of α-1,4-glycosidic linkages. Since glycogen is a readily mobilized storage form of glucose, the extended glycogen polymer is branched by glycogen branching enzyme to provide glycogen breakdown enzymes, such as glycogen phosphorylase, with a large number of terminal residues for rapid degradation. Branching also importantly increases the solubility and decreases the osmotic strength of glycogen. The protein encoded by this gene is a glycogen branching enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of alpha-1,4-linked glucosyl units from the outer end of a glycogen chain to an alpha-1,6 position on the