Christian de Duve glucagon was the major hormone influencing the breakdown of glycogen (glycogenolysis) in the liver, by which more sugars are produced in the blood. De Duve's original hypothesis that glucagon was produced by pancreatic alpha cells was proved right when it was demonstrated that selectively cobalt-damage alpha cells stopped producing glucagon in guinea pigs, and finally isolated the purified hormone in 1953, including those from birds. De Duve was the first to hypothesise that production of insulin to decrease blood sugar level stimulated the uptake of glucose in the liver, and that there is a balanced production of insulin and glucagon
Glucose 1-phosphate Glucose 1-phosphate Glucose 1-phosphate (also called cori ester) is a glucose molecule with a phosphate group on the 1'-carbon. It can exist in either the α- or β-anomeric form. In glycogenolysis, it is the direct product of the reaction in which glycogen phosphorylase cleaves off a molecule of glucose from a greater glycogen structure. A deficiency muscle glycogen phosphorylase is known as glycogen storage disease type V (McArdle Disease). To be utilized in cellular catabolism it must first be converted to glucose 6-phosphate by the enzyme phosphoglucomutase. One reason that cells form glucose 1-phosphate instead of glucose during glycogen breakdown