Glucose Uptake in Heterologous Expression Systems.

Understanding the physiological regulation of glucose transport requires the analysis of transporters, like GLUT1, in diverse tissue types. We document the utility of viral vectors for the stable expression of wild-type and modified GLUT1 transporter in different types of mammalian cells. Once expression of the alleles has been confirmed by Western blotting, the effect of specific mutations on the regulation of glucose transport can be measured through a previously described radiolabeled glucose transport assay. Although this discussion is focused on the GLUT1 transporter, these techniques are easily transferrable to other glucose transporters.