Even women with less severe forms of PKU may place their unborn children at risk by not following the PKU diet. Babies born to mothers with high phenylalanine levels don't often inherit PKU. But they can have serious consequences if the level of phenylalanine is high in the mother's blood during pregnancy.
Four polysaccharides are starch, glycogen, cellulose and chitin. The function of starch and glycogen are to store energy with cells within a body. Cellulose and chitin are designed to protect cells. Continue Reading.
A long chain of monosaccharides linked by covalent bonds is known as a polysaccharide (poly- = âmanyâ). The chain may be branched or unbranched, and it may contain different types of monosaccharides. Polysaccharides may be very large molecules. Starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin are examples of polysaccharides. Starch is the stored form of sugars in plants and is made up of amylose and amylopectin (both polymers of glucose). Plants are able to synthesize glucose, and the excess glucose is stored as starch in different plant parts, including roots and seeds. The starch that is consumed by animals is broken down into smaller molecules, such as glucose. The cells can then absorb the glucose. Glycogen is the storage form of glucose in humans and other vertebrates, and is made up of monomers of glucose. Glycogen is the animal equivalent of starch and is a highly branched molecule usually stored in liver and muscle cells. Whenever glucose levels decrease, glycogen is broken down to release glucose.