In‐vivo glucose uptake and glucose transporter proteins GLUT1 and GLUT3 in brain tissue from streptozotocin‐diabetic rats

The effects of streptozotocin-induced diabetes (13 weeks) on the in-vivo glucose uptake and on the protein levels of glucose transporters in rat brain were studied and compared with those in cardiac muscle. Diabetes reduced the uptake of 2-[3H]deoxyglucose into lobus frontalis by 70%. However, uptake rates corrected for the 4-fold increase in serum glucose (glucose metabolic index, GMI) were essentially unaltered. The levels of glucose transporter proteins GLUT1 and GLUT3 in crude membranes from brain as assessed by immunoblotting were unaffected by diabetes, whereas GMI and levels of glucose transporters GLUT1 and GLUT4 in heart were reduced by 80 and 65%, respectively. Thus, glucose uptake and levels of glucose transporters in brain, unlike that in insulin sensitive tissues, are normal in long-term hypo-insulinaemia.