Effect of glucose transport inhibitors on vincristine efflux in multidrug-resistant murine erythroleukaemia cells overexpressing the multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) and two glucose transport proteins, GLUT1 and GLUT3.

The relationship between mammalian facilitative glucose transport proteins (GLUT) and multidrug resistance was examined in two vincristine (VCR)-selected murine erythroleukaemia (MEL) PC4 cell lines. GLUT proteins, GLUT1 and GLUT3, were constitutively coexpressed in the parental cell line and also in the VCR-selected cell lines. Increased expression of the GLUT1 isoform was noted both in the PC-V40 (a non-P-glycoprotein, mrp-overexpressing subline) and in the more resistant PC-V160 (overexpressing mrp and mdr3) cell lines. Overexpression of GLUT3 was detected only in the PC-V160 subline. An increased rate of facilitative glucose transport (Vmax) and level of plasma membrane GLUT protein expression paralleled increased VCR resistance, active VCR efflux and decreased VCR steady-state accumulation in these cell lines. Glucose transport inhibitors (GTIs), cytochalasin B (CB) and phloretin blocked the active efflux and decreased steady-state accumulation of VCR in the PC-V40 subline. GTIs did not significantly affect VCR accumulation in the parental or PC-V160 cells. A comparison of protein sequences among GLUT1, GLUT3 and MRP revealed a putative cytochalasin B binding site in MRP, which displayed 44% sequence similarity/12% identity with that previously identified in GLUT1 and GLUT3; these regions also exhibited a similar hydropathy plot pattern. The findings suggested that CB bound to MRP and directly or indirectly lowered VCR efflux and/or CB bound to one or both GLUT proteins, which acted to lower the VCR efflux mediated by MRP. This is the first report of a non-neuronal murine cell line that expressed GLUT3.