• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2006

The baculovirus expression system is a powerful method for producing large amounts of the human erythrocyte-type glucose transport protein, heterologously. Characterization of the expressed protein is expected to show its ability to transport sugars directly. To achieve this, it is a prerequisite to know the properties of the endogenous sugar transport system in Spodoptera frugiperda Clone 21 (Sf21) cells, which are commonly employed as a host permissive cell line to support the baculovirus replication. The Sf21 cells can grow well on TC-100 medium that contains 0.1% D-glucose as the major carbon source, strongly suggesting the presence of endogenous glucose transport system. However, unlike the human glucose transport protein that has a broad substrate and inhibitor specificity, very little is known about the nature of the endogenous sugar transport system in Sf21 cells. In order to characterize further the inhibitor recognition properties of the Sf21 cell transporter, the ability of phloretin, cytochalasin B and D-fructose to inhibit 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) transport was examined by measuring inhibition constants $(K_i)$. The $K_i's$ for reversible inhibitors were determined from plots of uptake versus inhibitor concentration. The 2dGlc transport in the Sf21 cells was very potently inhibited by phloretin, the aglucone of phlorizin with a $K_i$ similar to the value of about $2{\mu}M$ reported for inhibition of glucose transport in human erythrocytes. However, the Sf21 cell transport system was found to differ from the human transport protein in being much less sensitive to inhibition by cytochalasin B (apparent $K_i$ approximately $10\;{\mu}M$). In contrast, It is reported that the inhibitor binds the human erythrocyte counterpart with a $K_d$ of approximately $0.12\;{\mu}M$. Interestingly, the Sf21 glucose transport system also appeared to have high affinity for D-fructose with a $K_i$ of approximately 5mM, contrasting the reported $K_m$ of the human erythrocyte transport protein for the ketose of 1.5M.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2009

Insect cells such as Spodoptera frugiperda Clone 9 (Sf9) cells are widely chosen as the host for heterologous expression of a mammalian sugar transport protein using the baculovirus expression system. Characterization of the expressed protein is expected to include assay of its function, including its ability to transport sugars and to bind inhibitory ligands such as cytochalasin B. It is therefore very important first to establish the transport characteristics and other properties of the endogenous sugar transport proteins of the host insect cells. However, very little is known of the transport characteristics of Sf9 cells, although their ability to grow on TC-100 medium strongly suggested the presence of endogenous glucose transport system. In order to investigate the substrate and inhibitor recognition properties of the Sf9 cell transporter, the ability of pentoses to inhibit 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) transport was investigated by measuring inhibition constants $(K_i)$. To determine the time period over which of sugar into the Sf cells was linear, the uptake of 2dGlc 0.1mM extracellular concentration was measured over periods ranging from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. The uptake was linear for at least 2 minutes at the concentration, implying that uptake made over a 1 minute time course would reflect initial rates of the sugar uptake. The data have also revealed the existence of a saturable transport system for pentose uptake by the insect cells. The transport was inhibited by D-xylose and D-ribose, although not as effective as hexoses. However, L-xylose had a little effect on 2dGlc transport in the Sf9 cells, indicating that the transport is stereoselective. Unlike the human erythrocyte-type glucose transport system, D-ribose had a somewhat greater apparent affinity for the Sf9 cell transporter than D-xylose. It is therefore concluded that Sf9 cells contain an endogenous sugar transport activity that in some aspects resembled the human erythrocyte-type counterpart, although the Sf9 and human transport systems do differ in their affinity for cytochalasin B.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.487-492
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• 2005

The baculovirus/insect cell expression system is of great value in the study of structure-function relationships in mammalian glucose-transport proteins by site-directed mutagenesis and for the large-scale production of these proteins for mechanistic and biochemical studies. Spodoptera frugiperda Clone 21 (Sf2l) cells grow well on TC-100 medium that contains $0.1\%$ D-glucose as the major carbon source, strongly suggesting the presence of endogenous glucose transporters. However, very little is known about the properties of the endogenous sugar transporter(s) in Sf2l cells, although a saturable transport system for hexose uptake has been previously revealed in the Sf cells. In order to further examine the substrate and inhibitor recognition properties of the Sf2l cell transporter, the ability of hexoses to inhibit 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) transport was investigated by measuring inhibition constants $(K_i)$. The $K_i's$ for reversible inhibitors were determined from plots of uptake versus inhibitor concentration. Transport was effectively inhibited by D-mannose and D-glucose. Of the hexoses tested, L-glucose had the least effect on 2dGlc transport in the Sf2l cells, indicating that the transport is stereoselective. Unlike the human HepG2 type glucose transport system, D-mannose had a somewhat greater affinity for the Sf2l cell transporter than D-glucose, implying that the hydroxyl group at the C-2 position is not necessary for strong binding. However, epimerization at the C-4 position of D-glucose (D-galactose) resulted in a dramatic decrease in affinity of the hexose for the Sf2l cell transporter. Such a lowering of affinity might be the result of the involvement of the C-4 hydroxyl in hydrogen bonding. It is therefore suggested that Sf2l cells were found to contain an endogenous sugar transport activity that in several aspects resembles the human HepG2 type glucose transporter, although the insect and human transporters do differ in their affinity for cytochalasin B.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.86-91
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• 2014

Trichoplusia ni cells are used as a host permissive cell line in the baculovirus expression system, which is useful for large-scale production of human sugar transport proteins. However, the activity of endogenous sugar transport systems in insect cells is extremely high. Therefore, the transport activity resulting from the expression of exogenous transporters is difficult to detect. Furthermore, very little is known about the nature of endogenous insect transporters. To exploit the expression system further, the effect of D-fructose on 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) transport by T. ni cells was investigated, and T. ni cell-expressed human transporters were photolabeled with [$^3H$] cytochalasin B to develop a convenient method for measuring the biological activity of insect cell-expressed transporters. The uptake of 1 mM 2dGlc by uninfected- and recombinant AcMPV-GTL infected cells was examined in the presence and absence of 300 mM of D-fructose, with and without $20{\mu}M$ of cytochalasin B. The sugar uptake in the uninfected cells was strongly inhibited by fructose but only poorly inhibited by cytochalasin B. Interestingly, the AcMPV-GTL-infected cells showed an essentially identical pattern of transport inhibition, and the rate of 2dGlc uptake was somewhat less than that seen in the non-infected cells. In addition, a sharply labeled peak was produced only in the AcMPV-GTL-infected membranes labeled with [$^3H$] cytochalasin B in the presence of L-glucose. No peak of labeling was seen in the membranes prepared from the uninfected cells. Furthermore, photolabeling of the expressed protein was completely inhibited by the presence of D-glucose, demonstrating the stereoselectivity of labeling.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.177-181
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• 2003

The baculovirus/Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf) cell system has become popular for the production of large amounts of the human erythrocyte glucose transporter, GLUT1, heterologously. However, it was not possible to show that the expressed transporter in insect cells could actually transport glucose. The possible reason for this was that the activity of the endogenous insect glucose transporter was extremely high and so rendered transport activity resulting from the expression of exogenous transporter very difficult to detect. Sf21-AE cells are commonly employed as the host permissive cell line to support the baculovirus AcNPV replication and protein synthesis. The cells grow well on TC-100 medium that contains 0.1 % D-glucose as the major carbon source, strongly suggesting the presence of endogenous glucose transporters. However, unlike the human glucose transporter, very little is known about properties of the endogenous sugar transporter(s) in insect cells. Thus, the uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dGlc) by Sf21-AE cells and the inhibition of 2dGlc transport in the insect cells by fructose and cytochalasin B were investigated in the present work. The binding assay of cytochalasin B was also performed, which could be used as a functional assay for the endogenous glucose transporter(s) in the insect cells. Sf21-AE cells were infected with the recombinant virus AcNPV-GT or no virus, at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 5. Infected cells were resuspended in PBS plus and minus 300 mM fructose, and plus and minus 20 $\mu$M cytochalasin B for use in transport assays. Uptake was measured at 28$^{\circ}C$ for 1 min, with final concentration of 1 mM deoxy-D-glucose, 2-[1,2-$^3$H]- or glucose, L-[l,$^3$H]-, used at a specific radioactivity of 4 Ci/mol. The results obtained demonstrated that the sugar uptake in uninfected cells was stereospecific, and was strongly inhibited by fructose but only poorly inhibitable by cytochalasin B. It is therefore suggested that the Sf21-AE glucose transporter has very low affinity for cytochalasin B, a potent inhibitor of human erythrocyte glucose transporter.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.327-332
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• 2005

Sf21 cells become popular as the host permissive cell line to support the baculovirus AcNPV replication and protein synthesis. The cells grow well on TC-100 medium that contains $0.1\%$ D-glucose as the major carbon source, strongly suggesting the presence of endogenous glucose transporters. However, unlike human glucose transporters, very little is known about the characteristics of the endogenoussugar transporter(s) in Sf21 cells. Thus, some kinetic properties of the sugar transport system were investigated, involving the uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2dG1c). In order to obtain a true measure of the initial rate of uptake, the uptake of $[^3H]2dGlc$ from both low $(100{\mu}M)$ and high (10 mM) extracellular concentrations was measured over periods ranging from 30 sec to30 min. The data obtained indicated that the uptake was linear for at least 2 min at both concentrations, suggesting that measurements made over a 1min time course would reflect initial rates of the jexpse uptake. To determine $K_m\;and\;V_{max}$ of the endogenous glucose transporter(s) in Sf21 cells, the uptake of 2dG1c was measured over a range of substrate concentrations $(50{\mu}M\~10mM)$ 2dG1c uptake by the Sf21 cells appeared to involve both saturable and non-saturable (or very low affinity) components. A saturable transport system for 2dG1c was relatively high, the $K_m$ value for uptake being < 0.45 mM. The $V_{max}$ value obtained for 2dG1c transport in the Sf21 cells was about 9.7-folds higher than that reported for Chinese hamster ovary cells, which contain a GLUT1 homologue. Thus, it appeared that the transport activity of the Sf21 cells was very high. In addition, the Sf21 glucose transporter was found to have very low affinity for cytochalasin B, a potent inhibitor of human erythrocyte glucose transporter