These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Mammalian facilitative hexose transporters mediate the transport of dehydroascorbic acid.
    Author: Vera JC, Rivas CI, Fischbarg J, Golde DW.
    Journal: Nature; 1993 Jul 01; 364(6432):79-82. PubMed ID: 8316303.
    Abstract:
    Although vitamin C is critical to human physiology, it is not clear how it is taken up into cells. The kinetics of cell and tissue accumulation of ascorbic acid in vitro indicate that the process is mediated by specific transporters at the cell membrane. Some experimental observations have linked the transport of ascorbic acid with hexose transport systems in mammalian cells, although no clear information is available regarding the specific role(s) of these transporters, if any, in this process. Here we use the Xenopus laevis oocyte expression system to show that the mammalian facilitative hexose transporters are efficient transporters of the oxidized form of vitamin C (dehydroascorbic acid). Two transport pathways, one with low affinity and one with high affinity for dehydroascorbic acid, were found in oocytes expressing the mammalian transporters, and these oocytes accumulated vitamin C against a concentration gradient when supplied with dehydroascorbic acid. We obtained similar results in experiments using normal human neutrophils. These observations indicate that mammalian facilitative hexose transporters are a physiologically significant pathway for the uptake and accumulation of vitamin C by cells, and suggest a mechanism for the accumulation of ascorbic acid against a concentration gradient.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]