Determination of glycogen by Rayleigh light scattering

Glycogen in aqueous solution displays intense light scattering. Study by dy namic laser light scattering showed that glycogen in aqueous solution exist s as particles, with average hydrodynamics radii (R-h) ca 22 nm for rabbit liver glycogen (RL gly) and 18 nm for oyster glycogen (O gly) and the parti cle size distribution width is narrow. Based on this, a method for glycogen determination based on Rayleigh light scattering using a conventional spec trofluorometer is developed. The light scattering intensity (LSI) is well p roportional to the concentration of RL gly over the wide range of 0.8-4000 mug ml(-1) and other two kinds of glycogen were also studied. The effect of factors such as temperature, ionic strength, pH, holding time and solvent were studied in detail and only organic solvents affect the LSI. There was little or no interference from monosaccharides or disaccharides, beta -cycl odextrin, some proteins and metal ions. This method has many advantages suc h as extremely simplicity, stability, accuracy, reproducibility and wide li near range. Six synthetic samples were analyzed with satisfactory results. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.