Alterations of glucose transporter mRNA and protein levels in brain following thermal injury and sepsis in mice.

Since glucose transport and utilization are profoundly influenced by injury and infection, and the brain is an organ which primarily utilizes glucose as its energy source, we examined the status of the facilitative glucose transporters GLUT1 and GLUT3 in brain following thermal injury and infection. BDF1 mice underwent a 15% total body surface area burn with or without Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. At 4 and 72 h post injury +/- infection, GLUT1 and GLUT3 mRNA abundance was measured by Northern blotting, and the correlative proteins determined using Western blotting. At 4 h, both brain GLUT1 mRNA and protein abundance were significantly increased in burned (mRNA 150 +/- 12%, protein 122 +/- 6%) and burn/infected (mRNA 165 +/- 11%, protein 119 +/- 5%) animals. At 72 h, GLUT1 mRNA and protein levels were also significantly increased in burn (mRNA: 139 +/- 11%, protein: 120 +/- 7%) and burn/infected (mRNA: 145 +/- 14%, protein: 138 +/- 8%) animals. Our studies suggest that alterations of GLUT1 mRNA and protein abundance were primary responses to the burn injury and were not further altered by burn wound infection.