Synthase activation is not a prerequisite for glycogen synthesis in the starved liver.

To evaluate the contribution of phosphorylase and synthase interconversion as well as the availability of substrates to the onset of liver glycogen synthesis, this process was studied in rats starved overnight and refed for 4 h. On feeding, phosphorylase kinase and phosphorylase were inactivated in a cAMP-independent way, but the proportion of synthase a was unchanged and associated with increased hexoses 6-phosphate (glucose and fructose 6-phosphate), uridine diphosphoglucose (UDPG), and fructose 2,6-bisphosphate concentrations. These findings serve to support a "push" mechanism whereby substrate availability for synthase a concerted with phosphorylase inactivation provokes glycogen deposition. Anesthesia was compulsory for liver sampling and analysis. If such experiments were carried out in conscious rats killed by decapitation, artefactual cAMP-dependent phosphorylase activation and synthase inactivation were observed in starved animals. The phosphorylase activation persisted in refed animals but by a cAMP-independent mechanism.