Glucose deprivation and acute cycloheximide treatment stimulate system L amino acid transport in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells.

The effect of glucose deprivation on the uptake of leucine has been examined in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells isolated from rat aortae. Equimolar substitution of sucrose or fructose for glucose in the culture medium enhanced the uptake of leucine in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. The effect was first detectable after 12 h and reached the maximum, 2-fold, after 48 h with an apparent half-maximal effect at 1 mM glucose and could be reversed after 48 h of glucose refeeding. The enhanced leucine uptake was completely inhibited by 2-amino-2-norbornane-carboxylic acid, a specific substrate for System L, but not by alpha-(methylamino)isobutyric acid or lysine. Kinetic analyses indicated that this stimulation was mediated via a homogenous system with a 1.7-fold increase in the Vmax without any change in the Km (0.15 mM). Prolonged treatments with cycloheximide (10 micrograms/ml) or actinomycin D (10 micrograms/ml) blocked this glucose deprivation effect and its reversal. However, cycloheximide also very rapidly stimulated leucine uptake, reaching the maximum, 2.5-fold over the basal at 1 h. This effect occurred at concentrations that matched its inhibition on protein synthesis (half-maximal at 0.1 micrograms/ml) and could be reproduced with puromycin as well as actinomycin D. The stimulatory effect of cycloheximide was also accompanied by an increase in the Vmax but not in the Km, being sensitive to 2-amino-2-norbornane-carboxylic acid inhibition only, and appeared to occur in an additive manner to that of glucose deprivation. Although the uptake of leucine was stimulated by glucose deprivation and brief exposure to cycloheximide, these treatments had no effect on the efflux of the substrate. These results are all consistent with the System L amino acids transport activity in cultured rat vascular smooth muscle cells being under the control of at least two non-hormonal regulatory mechanisms, one that is likely to involve a labile repressor molecule and the other involving de novo protein synthesis as a result of chronic glucose deprivation.