Pg. Lloyd et al., Examining glucose transport in single vascular smooth muscle cells with a fluorescent glucose analog, PHYSL RES, 48(6), 1999, pp. 401-410
Changes in vascular smooth muscle glucose transport are thought to contribu
te to the pathogenesis of vascular disease in conditions such as diabetes,
yet no single-cell assay for glucose uptake by VSM exists. Therefore, we ex
amined the uptake of the fluorescent glucose analog 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa
-1,3-diazol-4-yl)amino]-2-deoxyglucose (2-NBDG) in isolated pig vascular sm
ooth muscle cells (VSMC) using digital imaging microscopy. Uptake of 2-NBDG
by VSMC was inhibited by D-glucose but not by L-glucose, suggesting that 2
-NBDG enters VSMC via glucose transporters. Uptake of 2-NBDG was linear in
the presence of 10 mM D-glucose (n=6, R-2=0.9408) but not in its absence (n
=4, R-2=0.9993), indicating that 2-NBDG is not metabolized and accumulates
within the cells. 2-NBDG fluorescence in VSMC was often non-uniform and app
eared to represent binding of 2-NBDG to some cytoplasmic component. The pre
sent study demonstrates that 2-NBDG is a useful tool for examining vascular
smooth muscle glucose uptake at the single cell level.