Effects of temperature and glucose concentration on glycogen synthesis in Ancylostoma caninum

Abstract

The glycogen content of starved worms incubated in Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate, ox serum or dog serum, increased with increasing glucose concentrations. The pattern of increase in the presence and absence of dog serum, however, differed. A maximum of worm glycogen content was reached at a much lower glucose concentration when dog serum was present than when it was absent. Studies on temperature effects on worms incubated at 27 and 37°C, in the presence and absence of dog serum showed that for worms incubated in dog serum, a temperature coefficient of 3.31 was obtained. For worms incubated in Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate, the temperature coefficient was 0.88, thus showing that the uptake of glucose for glycogen synthesis was different when dog serum was absent from the incubating medium.