Enzymatic studies of glycogen metabolism in nonmalignant and malignant biopsies from the human uterine cervix.

The glycogen metabolism of the human uterine cervix has been investigated in tissue specimens from 147 women with gynaecological diseases: 64 with cervical carcinomas, 6 with carcinoma in situ and 77 with nonmalignant cervical diseases. The glycogen content of the normal uterine cervix was found to be fairly constant and apparently not regulated by steroid hormones. The low content of glycogen in malgnant cervical tumours was confirmed by the present investigation. The percent investigation also showed that this abnormality was not only characteristic of invasive carcinoma but also of carcinoma in situ. A particularly low glycogen content was found in tissue samples from patients with relapse. Concerning the enzyme involved in glycogen metabolism, a significantly high activity of glycogen synthetase was found in malignant cervical biopsies, while the activity of glycogen phosphorylase did not differ significantly when comparing normal to malignant tissue.