- Made available online as an Accepted Preprint 22 October 2008
- Accepted Preprint first posted online on 22 October 2008
Essential role of glucose transporter GLUT3 for post-implantation embryonic development
- S Schmidt1,
- A Hommel1,
- V Gawlik1,
- R Augustin1,
- N Junicke1,
- S Florian2,
- M Richter1,
- D J Walther3,
- D Montag4,
- H-G Joost1 and
- A Schürmann1
- Departments of1Pharmacology2Toxicology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, D-14558 Nuthetal, Germany3Department of Human Molecular Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, D-14195 Berlin, Germany4Research Group Neurogenetics, Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology, D-39118 Magdeburg, Germany
- (Correspondence should be addressed to A Schürmann; Email: schuermann{at}dife.de)
Abstract
Deletion of glucose transporter gene Slc2a3 (GLUT3) has previously been reported to result in embryonic lethality. Here, we define the exact time point of growth arrest and subsequent death of the embryo. Slc2a3−/− morulae and blastocysts developed normally, implanted in vivo, and formed egg-cylinder-stage embryos that appeared normal until day 6.0. At day 6.5, apoptosis was detected in the ectodermal cells of Slc2a3−/− embryos resulting in severe disorganization and growth retardation at day 7.5 and complete loss of embryos at day 12.5. GLUT3 was detected in placental cone, in the visceral ectoderm and in the mesoderm of 7.5-day-old wild-type embryos. Our data indicate that GLUT3 is essential for the development of early post-implanted embryos.
- Received in final form 20 October 2008
- Accepted 22 October 2008
- © 2009 Society for Endocrinology
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Society for Endocrinology's Re-use Licence which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
