Tracer exchange vs. net uptake of glucose through human red cell surface. New evidence for carrier-mediated diffusion.

Previous kinetic studies of net sugar movements through the human erythrocyte surface (in response to concentration gradients) have led to postulation of a special "carrier" system for transfer of monosaccharides in these cells. But alternatively some sort of non-specific depression of cell permeability at high sugar concentrations has been suggested as a possible basis for the saturation kinetics and the competitive phenomena observed. New theoretical calculations show that these two interpretations predict entirely different orders of magnitude for the relative rate of tracer glucose exchange at such high sugar levels. Therefore, the speeds of gross chemical equilibration and of tracer glucose equilibration were compared by means of serial analyses on quickly separated cells and media, in thick red cell suspensions. Glucose was first added to glucose-free suspensions, and its entry into the cells followed; then C14-glucose was added after attainment of chemical equilibrium, and the tracer equilibration similarly followed. The speed of the tracer movement in relation to the speed of net uptake was on the order of 50 to 100 times greater than would be found in an uncomplicated diffusion process, regardless of what depressant effect might be occasioned by the high sugar levels. In contrast, the comparative rates observed are predicted by the previously proposed facilitated-diffusion mobile-carrier model for monosaccharide transfer, if the glucose-carrier complex is assigned a dissociation constant (at 20 degrees C.) in the neighborhood of 1 mM.