Lysosomal glycogen accumulation in rat liver and its in vivo kinetics after a single intraperitoneal injection of acarbose, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor

A single intraperitoneal injection of acarbose (400 mg/kg) into rats caused lysosomal accumulation of glycogen in the liver, mimicking the cytological characteristics of human glycogen storage disease type II (Pompe's disease). The animal model is therefore useful for studying the pathogenesis of the disease. In the present study, we applied this model to examine the lysosomal hydrolytic pathway of glycogen in vivo. To quantify the lysosomal glycogen, the lysosome-rich fraction was rapidly prepared from liver homogenate by agglutination in the presence of Ca2+. Then the fraction was treated with alpha-amylase in isotonic medium to remove cytosolic glycogen, followed by transfer to hypotonic conditions in the presence of Triton X-100 to destroy total glycogen. The amount of lysosomal glycogen was calculated from the difference between the glycogen levels measured before and after the treatment under hypotonic conditions, and then it was corrected based on measurements of the intactness (%) of lysosomes and the recovery (%) of the lysosomal marker enzyme (beta NAGase). We observed no measurable lysosomal glycogen in normal liver by this method, and this was confirmed by electron microscopy. After administration of acarbose, the lysosomal glycogen level increased to 2.5 mg/g liver within 2 days, and then decreased gradually at a rate of 0.4 mg/day/g. The accumulation of glycogen in the lysosomes at an initial velocity of 1.5 mg/day/g liver may be considered as the amount of glycogen that would normally be degraded by acid alpha-glucosidase. Therefore, assuming that the liver breaks down about 40 mg glycogen/day/g, we estimated that about 3% of the glycogen would be hydrolyzed by the lysosomal pathway.