Glucose Transporters in Sex Steroid Hormone Related Cancer

Abstract

Cancer cells, as with most mammalian cells, depend on a continuous supply of glucose; not only as a precursor of glycoproteins, triglycerides and glycogen, but also as an important source of energy. This review concentrates on GLUT transporter expression in both normal and cancerous classical sex-steroid hormone tissues (i.e. breast, uterus, ovary, testis and prostate, among others). Given the importance of estrogen, progesterone and androgens in carcinogenesis, as well as in survival and propagation of these cancers, this review also highlights the current literature on hormone regulation of glucose transporters and on the role of hypoxia in their expression. Given the recent explosion of information on the newer GLUT6-12 family members, a brief overview on their function and general expression has been included. Finally, an insight into the use of glucose transporters as markers of cancer progression and clinical outcome is also discussed.

Androgens enhance the glycolytic metabolism and lactate export in prostate cancer cells by modulating the expression of GLUT1, GLUT3, PFK, LDH and MCT4 genes

“…1a). The process of glycolysis starts with glucose uptake from the extracellular medium, a task achieved by hexose transporters present at cell membrane, the GLUTs (Nualart et al 2009). Herein, it was shown that both GLUT1 and GLUT3 are under hormonal control in LNCaP cells (Fig.…”

“…The enhanced glycolytic activity of tumors firstly relies on glucose uptake from the extracellular media, which occurs via specific glucose transporters (GLUTs) (Nualart et al 2009). After entering the cell, glucose follows the glycolytic pathway and a set of catalytic reactions occur until its conversion to pyruvate.…”

Human choroid plexus papilloma cells efficiently transport glucose and vitamin C

“…Fourteen members of the GLUT family have been described as: GLUT1 to GLUT12, GLUT14, and a protoncoupled myoinositol transporter (HMIT or GLUT13) (Joost and Thorens 2001). Among all of the isoforms, only GLUT1-5 have been functionally characterized in detail (Mueckler et al 1985;Kayano et al 1988Kayano et al , 1990Fukumoto et al 1989;Nualart et al 1999;Watanabe et al 1999) as GLUT6-12 were only recently identified using homology searches of EST databases (Doege et al 2001;Nualart et al 2009). GLUT14 appears to be a duplication of the GLUT3 gene (Wu and Freeze 2002).…”

2-Methoxyestradiol Inhibits Progesterone-Dependent Tissue Factor Expression and Activity in Breast Cancer Cells

“…However, progestins, especially in HRT preparations, increase the risk of breast cancer, as highlighted by the Women's Health Initiative and Million Women Study [20,21]. We and others have shown that progesterone and progestins up-regulate several factors in breast cancer cells that promote cell survival, proliferation, angiogenesis and invasiveness [17,22,23]. Among the numerous genes implicated in these progesterone responses are STAT5, the glucose transporter GLUT1 and tissue factor (TF) [16,23,24].…”