Metabolism and Glycogen Formation in the Liver of the Chicken Embryo

The investigations of Dalton (1937) and of Lee (1951) have shown that glycogen appears in the liver of the chicken embryo at 7–8 days' incubation and before the formation of insulin by the islets of Langerhans at 11–12 days (Potvin & Aron, 1927). Further, Dalton (1937) has shown that when livers of embryos of 3 days' incubation were transplanted on to the chorio-allantoic membrane of 11–13-day hosts there was no acceleration of glycogen formation, althought it can be presumed that the transplanted livers were under the influence of insulin and other hormones in the blood-stream of the host. It is possible, therefore, that the first formation of glycogen is relatively independent of factors reaching the liver by way of the blood-stream and to be related more to events originating within the liver cells themselves.