Summary
Glucose is actively absorbed in the intestine by the action of the Na+-dependent glucose transporter. Using an antibody against the rabbit intestinal Na+-dependent glucose transporter (SGLT1), we examined the localization of SGLT1 immunohistochemically along the rat digestive tract (oesophagus, stomach, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, colon and rectum). SGLT1 was detected in the small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum), but not in the oesophagus, stomach, colon or rectum. SGLT1 was localized at the brush border of the absorptive epithelium cells in the small intestine. Electron microscopical examination showed that SGLT1 was localized at the apical plasma membrane of the absorptive epithelial cells. SGLT1 was not detected at the basolateral plasma membrane. Along the crypt-villus axis, all the absorptive epithelial cells in the villus were positive for SGLT1, whose amount increased from the bottom of the villus to its tip. On the other hand, cells in the crypts exhibited little or no staining for SGLT1. Goblet cells scattered throughout the intestinal epithelium were negative for SGLT1. These observations show that SGLT1 is specific to the apical plasma membrane of differentiated absorptive epithelial cells in the small intestine, and suggest that active uptake of glucose occurs mainly in the absorptive epithelial cells in the small intestine.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bell,G. I.,Kayano,T.,Buse,J. B.,Burant,C. F.,Takeda,J.,Lin,D.,Fukumoto,H. &Seino,S. (1990) Molecular biology of mammalian glucose transporters.Diabetes Care 13, 198–208.
Cheng,H. &Leblond,C. P. (1974) Origin, differentiation and renewal of the four main epithelial cell types in the mouse small intestine, I. Columnar cell.Am. J. Anat. 141, 461–80.
Coady,M. J.,Pajor,A. M. &Wright,E. M. (1990) Sequence homologies among intestinal and renal Na+/glucose cotransporters.Am. J. Physiol. 259, C605–10.
Dongen,J. M.Van,Visser,W. J.,Daems,W. T. &Galjaard,H. (1976) The relation between cell proliferation, differentiation and ultrastructural development in rat intestinal epithelium.Cell Tissue Res. 174, 183–99.
Ezaki,O.,Kasuga,M.,Akanuma,Y.,Takata,K.,Hirano,H.,Fujita-Yamaguchi,Y. &Kasahara,M. (1986) Recycling of the glucose transporter, the insulin receptor, and insulin in rat adipocytes. Effect of acidtropic agents.J. Biol. Chem. 261, 3295–305.
Gould,G. W. &Bell,G. I. (1990) Facilitative glucose transporters: an expanding family.Trends Biochem. Sci. 15, 18–23.
Guyton,C. (1991)Textbook of medical physiology, 8th edn. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Hediger,M. A.,Coady,M. J.,Ikeda,T. S. &WrightE. M. (1987) Expression cloning and cDNA sequencing of the Na+/glucose co-transporter.Nature 330, 379–81.
Hirayama,B. A. &Wright,E. M. (1992) Glycosylation of the rabbit intestinal brush border Na+/glucose cotransporter.Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1103, 37–44.
Hirayama,B. A.,Wong,H. C.,Smith,C. D.,Hagenbuch,B. A.,Hediger,M. A. &Wright,E. M. (1991) Intestinal and renal Na+/glucose cotransporters share common structures.Am. J. Physiol. 261, C296–304.
Hwang,E. S.,Hirayama,B. A. &Wright,E. M. (1991) Distribution of the SGLT1 Na+/glucose cotransporter and mRNA along the crypt-villus axis of rabbit small intestine.Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 181, 1208–17.
Johnson,G. D. &Araujo,G. M. C. N. (1981) A simple method of reducing the fading of immunofluorescence during microscopy.J. Immunol. Meth. 43, 349–50.
Kimmich,G. A. (1981) Intestinal absorption of sugar. InPhysiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract (edited byJohnson,L. R.) pp. 1035–61. New York: Raven Press.
Kinter,W. B. &Wilson,T. H. (1965) Autoradiographic study of sugar and amino acid absorption by everted sacs of hamster intestine.J. Cell Biol. 25, 19–39.
Kong,C. T.,Yet,S. F. &Lever,J. E. (1993) Cloning and expression of a mammalian Na+/amino acid cotransporter with sequence similarity to Na+/glucose cotransporters.J. Biol. Chem. 268, 1509–12.
Kwon,H. M.,Yamauchi,A.,Uchida,S.,Preston,A. S.,Garcia-Perez,A.,Burg,M. B. &Handler,J. S. (1992) Cloning of the cDNA for a Na+/myo-inositol cotransporter, a hypertonicity stress protein.J. Biol. Chem. 267, 6297–301.
Lescale-Matys,L.,Dyer,J.,Scott,D.,Freeman,T. C.,Wright,E. M. &Shirazi-Beechey,S. P. (1993) Regulation of the ovine intestinal Na+/glucose co-transporter (SGLT1) is dissociated from mRNA abundance.Biochem. J. 291, 435–40.
Mueckler,M.,Caruso,C.,Baldwin,S. A.,Panico,M.,Blench,I.,Morris,H. R.,Allard,W. J.,Lienhard,G. E. &Lodish,H. F. (1985) Sequence and structure of a human glucose transporter.Science 229, 941–5.
Pajor,A. M.,Hirayama,B. A. &Wright,E. M. (1992) Molecular evidence for two renal Na+/glucose cotransporters.Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1106, 216–20.
Pessin,J. E. &Bell,G. I. (1992) Mammalian facilitative glucose transporter family: structure and molecular regulation.Ann. Rev. Physiol. 54, 911–30.
Schneider,A. J.,Kinter,W. B. &Stirling,C. E. (1966) Glucose-galactose malabsorption. Report of a case with autoradiographic studies of a mucosal biopsy. New Eng. J. Med.274, 305–12.
Silverman,M. (1991) Structure and function of hexose transporters.Annu. Rev. Biochem. 60, 757–94.
Smith,M. W.,Turvey,A. &Freeman,T. C. (1992) Appearance of phloridzin-sensitive glucose transport is not controlled at mRNA level in rabbit jejunal enterocyte.Exp. Physiol. 77, 525–8.
Stirling,C. E. (1967) High-resolution radioautography of phlorizin-3H in rings of hamster intestine.J. Cell Biol. 35, 605–18.
Stirling,C. E. &Kinter,W. B. (1967) High-resolution radioautography of galactose-3H accumulation in rings of hamster intestine.J. Cell Biol. 35, 585–604.
Stirling,C. E.,Schneider,A. J.,Wong,M. D. &Kinter,W. B. (1972) Quantitative radioautography of sugar transport in intestinal biopsies from normal humans and a patient with glucose-galactose malabsorptions.J. Clin. Invest. 51, 438–51.
Takata,K. &Hirano,H. (1990) Use of fluoresceinphalloidin and DAPI as a counterstain for immunofluorescence microscopic studies with semithin frozen sections.Acta Histochem. Cytochem. 23, 679–83.
Takata,K. &Singer,S. J. (1988) Phosphotyrosine-modified proteins are concentrated at the membranes of epithelial and endothelial cells during tissue development in chick embryos.J. Cell Biol. 106, 1757–64.
Takata,K.,Kasahara,T.,Kasahara,M.,Ezaki,O. &Hirano,H. (1990) Erythrocyte/HepG2-type glucose transporter is concentrated in cells of blood-tissue barriers.Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 173, 67–73.
Takata,K.,Ezaki,O.,Kasahara,T.,Kasahara,M. &Hirano,H. (1991a) Localization of two types of glucose transporters in rat kidney.Acta Histochem. Cytochem. 24, 105–10.
Takata,K.,Kasahara,T.,Kasahara,M.,Ezaki,O. &Hirano,H. (1991b) Localization of Na+-dependent active type and erythrocyte/HepG2-type glucose transporters in rat kidney: immunofluorescence and immunogold study.J. Histochem. Cytochem. 39, 287–98.
Takata,K.,Kasahara,T.,Kasahara,M.,Ezaki,O. &Hirano,H. (1992) Immunohistochemical localization of Na+-dependent glucose transporter in rat jejunum.Cell Tissue Res. 267, 3–9.
Takata,K.,Kasahara,M.,Oka,Y. &Hirano,H. (1993) Mammalian sugar transporters: their localization and link to cellular functions.Acta Histochem. Cytochem. 26, 165–77.
Thorens,B.,Cheng,Z-Q.,Brown,D. &Lodish,H. F. (1990) Liver glucose transporter: a basolateral protein in hepatocytes and intestine and kidney cells.Am. J. Physiol. 259, C279–85.
Turk,E.,Zabel,B.,Mundlos,S.,Dyer,J. &Wright,E. M. (1991) Glucose/galactose malabsorption caused by a defect in the Na+/glucose cotransporter.Nature 350, 354–6.
Wright,E. M. (1993) The intestinal Na+/glucose cotransporter.Annu. Rev. Physiol. 55, 575–89.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yoshida, A., Takata, K., Kasahara, T. et al. Immunohistochemical localization of Na+-dependent glucose transporter in the rat digestive tract. Histochem J 27, 420–426 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02389029
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02389029