Abstract
Cancer cells exhibit accelerated rates of metabolism favoring glucose over fatty acid
(FA) utilization. For both energy substrates, protein-mediated transport plays an
essential role in facilitating glucose or FA movement across plasma membrane into
the cells. Scarce data exist regarding the expression of glucose and/or FA transporter
in cancer tissue. Therefore, we examined glucose (GLUT-1, GLUT-3, GLUT-4) and FA (FAT/CD36,
FABPpm, FATP-1) transporter expressions at the protein and post-transcript (mRNA)
levels in 35 endometrial carcinomas (G1, type endometrioid, FIGO I) and compared them
with normal endometrial mucosa (n=10). Endometrial cancer tissue had significantly
greater protein expression of GLUT-1, GLUT-3, and GLUT-4 (+ 40%; + 20%; + 24%; p<0.05,
respectively) and, conversely, lower fatty acid (FAT/CD36 and FATP-1) transporter
expression ( − 25%; p<0.05 and − 15%, p>0.05 respectively). Interestingly, mRNA content
closely mirrors the changes, but only for glucose transporters and not fatty acid
transporters. These results suggest the presence of metabolic switch of energy utilization
in endometrial cancers favoring glucose consumption as the major source of energy.
Key words
FAT/CD36 - FABPpm - GLUT-1 - GLUT-3 - GLUT-4 - endometrial cancer