To determine the cellular adaptations to fetal hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, we examined the time-dependent effects on basal (GLUT-1 and GLUT-3) and insulin-responsive (GLUT-4) glucose transporter proteins by quantitative Western blot analysis in fetal ovine insulin-insensitive (brain and liver) and insulin-sensitive (myocardium, skeletal muscle, and adipose) tissues. Maternal glucose infusions causing fetal hyperglycemia resulted in a transient 30% increase in brain GLUT-1 but not GLUT-3 levels and a decline in liver and adipose GLUT-1 and myocardial and skeletal muscle GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 levels compared with gestational age-matched controls. Maternal insulin infusions leading to fetal hypoglycemia caused a decline in brain GLUT-3, an increase in brain GLUT-1, and a subsequent decline in liver GLUT-1, with no significant change in insulin-sensitive myocardium, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue GLUT-1 or GLUT-4 concentrations, compared with gestational age-matched sham controls. We conclude that fetal glucose transporters are subject to a time-dependent and tissue- and isoform-specific differential regulation in response to altered circulating glucose and/or insulin concentrations. These cellular adaptations in GLUT-1 (and GLUT-3) are geared toward protecting the conceptus from perturbations in substrate availability, and the adaptations in GLUT-4 are geared toward development of fetal insulin resistance.
To examine the in vivo and in vitro time-dependent effects of glucose on placental glucose transporter (GLUT-1) protein levels, we employed Western blot analysis using placenta from the short-term streptozotocin-induced diabetic pregnancy (STZ-D), uterine artery ligation-intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) rat models, pregnant sheep exposed to chronic maternal glucose and insulin infusions, and the HRP.1 rat trophoblastic cell line exposed to differing concentrations of glucose. In the rat, 6 days of STZ-D with maternal and fetal hyperglycemia caused no substantive change, whereas 72 h of IUGR with fetal hypoglycemia and ischemic hypoxia resulted in a 50% decline in placental GLUT-1 levels ( P < 0.05). In late-gestation ewes, maternal and fetal hyperglycemia caused an initial threefold increase at 48 h ( P< 0.05), with a persistent decline between 10 to 21 days, whereas maternal and fetal hypoglycemia led to a 30–50% decline in placental GLUT-1 levels ( P < 0.05). Studies in vitro demonstrated no effect of 0 mM, whereas 100 mM glucose caused a 60% decline ( P < 0.05; 48 h) in HRP.1 GLUT-1 levels compared with 5 mM of glucose. The added effect of hypoxia on 0 and 100 mM glucose concentrations appeared to increase GLUT-1 concentrations compared with normoxic cells ( P < 0.05; 100 mM at 18 h). We conclude that abnormal glucose concentrations alter rodent and ovine placental GLUT-1 levels in a time- and concentration-dependent manner; hypoxia may upregulate this effect. The changes in placental GLUT-1 concentrations may contribute toward the process of altered maternoplacentofetal transport of glucose, thereby regulating placental and fetal growth.
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