Regulation of glucose transporters in sheep placenta

TL;DRAbstract

Transplacental glucose transport is vital to fetal growth. Although the presence of glucose transporter-1 (GLUT1) and GLUT3 has been demonstrated in mammalian placenta, the factors regulating these genes remain unclear. Therefore, the overall aim of these studies was to clone ovine GLUT1 (oGLUT1) and oGLUT3 cDNAs, and to use these to investigate gene expression during ovine placental development and function. Ovine GLUT1 (~2.2 kb) and oGLUT3 (483 bp) cDNAs were isolated and cloned. Sequence analysis demonstrated that oGLUT1 showed high homology (97 - 99%) with other mammalian species, whereas oGLUT3 did not (84 - 88%). Northern analysis demonstrated that oGLUT1 mRNA abundance increased from d 45 to d 120 of gestation, then decreased towards term (d 145 ± 2), whereas oGLUT3 mRNA abundance increased throughout gestation. Western analysis showed oGLUT1 protein levels increased during late gestation, indicating post-transcriptional regulation of oGLUT1. Localisation experiments revealed sp

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