AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 259, Issue 4 571-G577, Copyright © 1990 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Intestinal D-glucose transport and membrane fluidity along crypt-villus axis of streptozocin-induced diabetic rats

P. K. Dudeja, R. K. Wali, A. Klitzke and T. A. Brasitus
Department of Medicine, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.

Diabetes was induced in male Lewis rats by a single injection of streptozocin (50 mg/kg body wt ip). After 10-14 days, diabetic and age- and sex-matched control animals were killed, and their proximal small intestines were removed. Villus-tip, mid-villus, and lower-villus enterocytes were harvested from each group with a method that combined divalent cation chelation with mild mechanical dissociation. These fractions were used as starting material to prepare brush-border membrane vesicles. Preparations from each of these fractions were then analyzed and compared with respect to their Na(+)-gradient-dependent and Na(+)-independent D-glucose transport, lipid fluidity, and lipid composition. The results of these experiments demonstrated that 1) maximum rates of Na(+)-gradient-dependent D-glucose transport (Vmax) were greatest in membrane vesicles prepared from mature cells (villus tip and mid villus) of control rats; 2) the glucose concentration producing half-maximal rates of transport (Km), however, was significantly lower in lower-villus membrane vesicles of control rats, suggesting that a distinct glucose transporter existed in the membranes of these relatively immature enterocytes; 3) Na(+)-gradient-dependent, but not Na(+)-independent, D-glucose uptake was greater in diabetic membrane vesicles prepared from mid-villus and lower-villus fractions but not in vesicles prepared from villus-tip cells; and 4) no obvious relationship between alterations in membrane lipid fluidity and enhanced uptake of Na(+)-gradient-dependent D-glucose by these transporter(s) could be established in this experimental model of acute diabetes mellitus.

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