Glycogen molecule, size

A glycogen molecule contains about 10 glucose units. It has no discrete molecular weight, since its size varies... 

What is the likely limit to the size of a glycogen molecule ... 

Thus, the structure shown in Fig. 12a was proposed by Whelan and coworkers to represent diagrammatically the structures of glycogen and amylopectin. It may be seen that this model, which has been drawn in the most symmetrical way possible and in which all B-chains carry, on average, 2 other chains (either 2 A-chains or 2 B-chains), accounts for the liberation of maltose after feefa-amylase treatment of isoamylase-debranched Meyer model, wherein chains do not terminate within the molecule, this feature is characteristic of the new structure. The result is that the molecular size should not be... 

It was proved that the reaction effectively occurs within the liposome by radioactive labeling during glycogen synthesis, while the same reaction is prevented in the external medium. The authors additionally showed that DNase I and tRNA molecules could permeate through the POPC/cholate bilayer, but they also observed a critical size of about 70 kDa for which permeation is not possible (for instance, no permeation of phosphorylase and amyloglucosidase were observed). 

If the nucleus is not of negligible size as will occur for some divinylbenzene coupled polymers and all the glycogen and amylopectin star molecules, then the expressions derived for g are complex. For a treatment of these particular problems the reader is referred to the original article ... 

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