Purpose: Growing evidence shows an association between diabetes mellitus and alveolar bone loss. As abnormal cellular glucose uptake and metabolism are partly involved in diabetic complications, this study was undertaken to explore the effect of hyperglycemia on glucose uptake, glucose transporter1 (GLUT1) expression induced by insulin of rat mandibular osteoblasts.
Methods: Primary osteoblasts were isolated and cultured. The cells were incubated for 48h with medium containing 5.5mmol/L and 16.5mmol/L glucose respectively,then treated with or without insulin for 24h. Glucose uptake was detected by using (18)F-FDG in the cells and GLUT1 expression levels were evaluated by Western blotting analysis. One-way ANOVA and t test were performed using SPSS13.0 software package.
Results: The results showed that with 16.5mmol/L glucose, glucose uptake was not changed significantly, but GLUT1 expression was increased by 35% (P<0.01), insulin had no significant effect on glucose uptake, but it decreased GLUT1 expression by 33% (P<0.01).
Conclusions: It is concluded that hyperglycemia can induce insulin resistance of osteoblasts, in which alteration in transport activity and function of GLUT1 might be involved.