The expression of selected intestinal glucose, fructose and long-chain fatty acid transporters investigated in Caco-2 cells

Many diseases and metabolic disorders such as Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus show their origin or progress in specific lifestyles, e. g. unhealthy nutrition, physical inactiveness or tobacco use [1]. With regard to unhealthy and excessive food intake, it is an approach to identify new, plant-based substances, which inhibit different transporters in the gut to facilitate patient’s therapies.

Especially polyphenols are discussed to act as inhibitors on intestinal transporters [2].

At the beginning of our studies, we investigated the expression of glucose (SGLT1, GLUT2), fructose (GLUT5) and long-chain fatty acid (FATP2, FATP4) transporters in the Caco-2 model.

Caco-2 cells have been studied and used as an intestinal barrier model for different investigations [3]. This cell line shows spontaneous differentiation after confluence and expresses a brush border with enzymes and transporters for nutritional uptake [4],[5]. We compared the expression of mentioned transporters in Caco-2 cells at different time points within 3 weeks untreated and treated with differentiation reagent Sodium Butyrate. After western blot analysis, the samples were detected by chemiluminescence and we were able to detect the expression of SGLT1, FATP2 and FATP4. Cells treated with Sodium Butyrate showed an approximate expression of each of the transporters earlier after confluence compared to untreated cells at Day 15 or 21 after confluence. Sodium Butyrate is suitable to shorten the differentiation time and still represents the approximate expression of these transporters in the differentiated stage. Therefore, it is a qualified model for further transport studies.

• References

• 1 World Health Organization. Diabetes. https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes (2019, April 20)
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