• Diabetes and Metabolism Journal
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.465-471
• /
• 2018

My professional journey to understand the glucose homeostasis began in the 1990s, starting from cloning of the promoter region of glucose transporter type 2 (GLUT2) gene that led us to establish research foundation of my group. When I was a graduate student, I simply thought that hyperglycemia, a typical clinical manifestation of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), could be caused by a defect in the glucose transport system in the body. Thus, if a molecular mechanism controlling glucose transport system could be understood, treatment of T2DM could be possible. In the early 70s, hyperglycemia was thought to develop primarily due to a defect in the muscle and adipose tissue; thus, muscle/adipose tissue type glucose transporter (GLUT4) became a major research interest in the diabetology. However, glucose utilization occurs not only in muscle/adipose tissue but also in liver and brain. Thus, I was interested in the hepatic glucose transport system, where glucose storage and release are the most actively occurring.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.331-344
• /
• 1990

What makes glucose transport function sensitive to insulin in one cell type such as adipocyte, and insensitive in another such as liver cells is unresolved question at this time. Recently it is known that insulin stimulates glucose transport in adipocytes largely by redistributing transporter from the storage pool that is included in a low density microsomal fraction to plasma membrane. Therefore, insulin sensitivity may depend upon the relative distribution of gluscose transporters between the plasma membrane and in an intracellular storage compartment. In hepatocytes, the subcellular distribution of glucose transporter is less well documented. It is thus possible that the apparent insensitivity of the hepatocyte system could be either due to lack of the constitutively maintained, intracellular storage pool of glucose transporter or lack of insulin-mediated transporter translocation mechanism in this cell. In this study, I examined if any intracellular glucose transporter pool exists in hepatocytes and this pool is affected by insulin. The results obtained summarized as followings: 1) Distribution of subcellular fractions of hepatocyte showed that there are $24.9{\pm}1.3%$ of plasma membrane, $36.9{\pm}1.7%$ of nucleus-mitochondria enriched fraction, $23.5{\pm}1.2%$ of lysosomal fraction, $9.6{\pm}1.0%$ of high density microsomal fraction and $4.9{\pm}0.5%$ of low density microsomal fraction. 2) In adipocyte, there were $29.9{\pm}2.6%$ of plasma membrane, $19.4{\pm}1.9%$ of nucleus-mitochondria enriched fraction, $26.7{\pm}1.8%$ of high density microsomal fraction and $23.9{\pm}2.1%$ of low density microsomal fraction. 3) Surface labelling of sodium borohydride revealed that plasma membrane contaminated to lysosomal fraction by $26.8{\pm}2.8%$, high density microsomal fraction by $8.3{\pm}1.3%$ and low density microsomal fraction by $1.7{\pm}0.4%$ respectively. 4) Cytochalasin B bound to all of subcellular fractions with a Kd of $1.0{\times}10^{-6}M$. 5) Photolabelling of cytochalasin B to subcellular fractions occurred on 45 K dalton protein band, a putative glucose transporter and D-glucose inhibited the photolabelling. 6) Insulin didn't affect on the distribution of subcellular fractions and translocation of intracellular glucose transporters of hepatocytes. 7) HEGT reconstituted into hepatocytes was largely associated with plasma membrane and very little was found in low density microsomal fraction which equals to the native glucose transporter distribution. Insulin didn't affect on the distribution of exogeneous glucose transporter in hepatocytes. From the above results it is concluded that insulin insensitivity of hepatocyte may due to lack of intracellular storage pool of glucose transporter and thus intracellular storage pool of glucose transporter is an essential feature of the insulin action.

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

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.132-137
• /
• 2017

Elevated glucose levels in cancer cells can be attributed to increased levels of glucose transporter (GLUT) proteins. Glut1 expression is increased in human malignant cells. To investigate alternative roles of Glut1 in breast cancer, we silenced Glut1 in triple-negative breast-cancer cell lines using a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) system. Glut1 silencing was verified by Western blotting and qRT-PCR. Knockdown of Glut1 resulted in decreased cell proliferation, glucose uptake, migration, and invasion through modulation of the EGFR/MAPK signaling pathway and integrin ${\beta}1$/Src/FAK signaling pathways. These results suggest that Glut1 not only plays a role as a glucose transporter, but also acts as a regulator of signaling cascades in the tumorigenesis of breast cancer.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.851-855
• /
• 2006

Acarviosine-glucose (AcvGlc) is an ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitor and has similar inhibitory activity to acarbose in vitro. We synthesized AcvGlc by treating acarbose with Bacillus stearothermophilus maltogenic amylase and fed C57BL/6J and db/db mice with diets containing purified AcvGlc and acarbose for 1 week. AcvGlc (50 and 100 mg/100 g diet) significantly reduced plasma glucose and triglyceride levels in db/db mice by 42 and 51 %, respectively (p<0.0001). The hypoglycemic and hypotriglyceridemic effects of AcvGlc were slightly, but significantly, greater than those seen with acarbose treatment (p<0.0001) in C57BL/6J mice. In an oral glucose tolerance test, glucose tolerance was significantly improved at all time points (p<0.01). The expression of two novel glucose transporters (GLUTs), GLUT10 and GLUT12, were examined by Western blot analysis. GLUT10 was markedly increased in the db/db livers. After AcvGlc treatment, the expression of hepatic GLUT10 was decreased whereas intestinal GLUT12 was significantly increased in both strains of mice. Our results show that AcvGlc improves plasma lipid and glucose metabolism slightly more than acarbose. Regulation of hepatic GLUT10 and intestinal GLUT12 may be important in controlling blood glucose levels.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.97-104
• /
• 2015

Glucose is universal and essential fuel of energy metabolism and in the synthesis pathways of all mammalian cells. Glucose is the one of the major precursors of lactose synthesis using glycolysis result in producing milk fat and protein. During the milk fat synthesis, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and CD36 are required for glucose uptake. Various morecules such as acyl-CoA synthetase 1 (ACSL1) activity of acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2), ACACA, FASN AGPAT6, GPAM, LPIN1 are closely related with milk fat synthesis. Additionally, glucose plays a major role for synthesizing lactose. Activations of lactose synthesize enzymes such as membranebound enzyme, beta-1,4-galactosyl transferase (B4GALT), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) are changed by concentration of glucose in blood resulting change of amount of lactose production. Glucose transporters are a wide group of membrane proteins that facilitate the transport of glucose over a plasma membrane. There are 2 types of glucose transporters which consisted facilitative glucose transporters (GLUT); and sodium-dependent transport, mediated by the Na+/glucose cotransporters (SGLT). Among them, GLUT1, GLUT8, GLUT12, SGLT1, SGLT2 are main glucose transporters which involved in mammary gland development and milk synthesis. However, more studies are required for revealing clear mechanism and function of other unknown genes and transporters. Therefore, understanding of the mechanisms of glucose usage and its regulation in mammary gland is very essential for enhancing the glucose utilization in the mammary gland and improving dairy productivity and efficiency.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.191-202
• /
• 1995

The purpose of this study was to compare effects of insulin and IGFs on growth, apical membrane enzyme activities and membrane transport systems of primary cultured rabbit kidney proximal tubule cells. Results were as follows: 1. Insulin and IGF-I produced significant growth stimulatory effects at $5{\times}10^{-10}M.\;IGF-II(5×10^{-10}\;M)$ did not stimulate significant cell growth. 2. Insulin stimulated the phosphorylation of a 97 KD protein. It was difficult to determine whether this band represents insulin and/or the IGF-I receptor. 3. The activities of apical membrane enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, leucine aminopeptidase, and ${\gamma}-glutamyl \;transpeptidase)$ were observed to be diminished after the cells were placed in the culture environment. 4. The uptake of ${\alpha}-MG,$ Pi and Na was significantly increased in cells incubated with insulin or IGF-I, IGF-II had no effect on the uptake of these substrates. 5. Na-pump activity, as assayed by Rb uptake, was significantly increased in cells treated with insulin or IGFs. In conclusion, insulin and IGF-I exert stimulatory effects on growth and membrane transporter(glucose, Na, Pi, and Na-pump) activities in primary cultured rabbit kidney proximal tubule cells. IGF-II had no effect on cell growth and membrane transporter(glucose, Na and Pi) activities.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.12
• /
• pp.1944-1949
• /
• 2020

Mutant sugar transporter ScGAL2-N376F was overexpressed in Kluyveromyces marxianus for efficient utilization of xylose, which is one of the main components of cellulosic biomass. K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F, the ScGAL2-N376F-overexpressing strain, exhibited 47.04 g/l of xylose consumption and 26.55 g/l of xylitol production, as compared to the parental strain (24.68 g/l and 7.03 g/l, respectively) when xylose was used as the sole carbon source. When a mixture of glucose and xylose was used as the carbon source, xylose consumption and xylitol production rates were improved by 195% and 360%, respectively, by K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F. Moreover, the glucose consumption rate was improved by 27% as compared to that in the parental strain. Overexpression of both wild-type ScGAL2 and mutant ScGAL2-N376F showed 48% and 52% enhanced sugar consumption and ethanol production rates, respectively, when a mixture of glucose and galactose was used as the carbon source, which is the main component of marine biomass. As shown in this study, ScGAL2-N376F overexpression can be applied for the efficient production of biofuels or biochemicals from cellulosic or marine biomass.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.670-679
• /
• 2021

Objective: Glucose transporter 9 (GLUT9) is a uric acid transporter that is associated with uric absorption in mice and humans; but it is unknown whether GLUT9 involves in chicken uric acid regulation. This experiment aimed to investigate the chicken GLUT9 expression and serum uric acid (SUA) level. Methods: Sixty chickens were divided into 4 groups (n = 15): a control group (NC); a sulfonamide-treated group (SD) supplemented with sulfamonomethoxine sodium via drinking water (8 mg/L); a fishmeal group (FM) supplemented with 16% fishmeal in diet; and a uric acid-injection group (IU), where uric acid (250 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally injected once a day. The serum was collected weekly to detect the SUA level. Liver, kidney, jejunum, and ileum tissues were collected to detect the GLUT9 mRNA and protein expression. Results: The results showed in the SD and IU groups, the SUA level increased and GLUT9 expression increased in the liver, but decreased in the kidney, jejunum, and ileum. In the FM group, the SUA level decreased slightly and GLUT9 expression increased in the kidney, but decreased in the liver, jejunum, and ileum. Correlation analysis revealed that liver GLUT9 expression correlated positively, and renal GLUT9 expression correlated negatively with the SUA level. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that there may be a feedback regulation of GLUT9 in the chicken liver and kidney to maintain the SUA balance; however, the underlying mechanism needs to be investigated in future studies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
• /
• 2002.11b
• /
• pp.147-147
• /
• 2002

In this study, a mechanism by which glucose level modulates glucose transport in Jurkat cells was investigated. Glucose uptake was more efficient in the cells cultivated in low glucose (2.5 mM) medium than that grown in high glucose (20 $\mu$M) medium. Vmax (0.74 n㏖/10$^6$ cells$\cdot$min) of glucose uptake measured with the cells grown in the low glucose medium was higher than the one (1.06 n㏖/10$^6$ cells$\cdot$min) in the high glucose medium while Km was almost consistent through the change of glucose levels, indicating the increase of glucose transporter number.