Thyroid hormone increases the partitioning of glucose transporters to the plasma membrane in ARL 15 cells

R. S. Haber, C. M. Wilson, S. P. Weinstein, A. Pritsker and S. W. Cushman Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. The stimulation of glucose transport by 3,5,3'-triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) in the liver-derived ARL 15 cell line is only partly attributable to increased GLUT-1 glucose transporter gene expression. To test the hypothesis that T3 increases the partitioning of GLUT-1 to the cell surface, we quantitated surface GLUT-1 using the photolabel ATB-[3H]BMPA. In control cells only approximately 20% of total cellular GLUT-1 was present at the cell surface. T3 treatment (100 nM) for 6 h increased the rate of 2-deoxy-[3H]glucose (2-DG) uptake by 30, 92, and 95% in three experiments and increased surface GLUT-1 photolabeling by 17, 81, and 72%, respectively, with no increase in total cellular GLUT-1. T3 treatment for 48 h increased 2-DG uptake by 143, 172, and 216% in three experiments and increased cell surface GLUT-1 photolabeling by 88, 161, and 184%, respectively, with smaller increases in total cellular GLUT-1. T3 treatment for 48 h thus increased the fraction of cellular GLUT-1 at the plasma membrane from 21 +/- 2 to 35 +/- 3% (SE). We conclude that most of the early (6-h) stimulation of glucose transport by T3 in ARL 15 cells is mediated by an increase in the partitioning of GLUT-1 to the plasma membrane. With more chronic T3 treatment (48 h), the enhanced surface partitioning of GLUT-1 is persistent and is superimposed on an increase in total cellular GLUT-1, accounting for a further increase in glucose transport.