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Action of metformin on glucose transport and glucose transporter GLUT1 and GLUT4 in heart muscle cells from healthy and diabetic rats

Fischer Y, Thomas J, Rösen P, Kammermeier H

Endocrinology, 1995

Abstract

The effects of the antidiabetic drug metformin on glucose transport were investigated in freshly isolated heart muscle cells from healthy and streptozotocin-diabetic rats. In vivo treatment of diabetic rats with metformin failed to affect the basal and insulin-stimulated rate of glucose transport measured in isolated cells. In vitro exposure to therapeutic concentrations (< or = 10(-4) M) of metformin did not influence glucose transport, even upon incubation times up to 5 h or in the presence of high glucose (20 nM). In contrast, higher metformin concentrations produced an 8- to 12-fold increase in glucose uptake (with a lag of 90 min, and a maximum at 180 min and approximately 5 mM). In the presence of submaximal insulin concentrations (< or = 3.10(-10) M), the effects of metformin (5 mM) and of insulin were more than additive, whereas, at saturating insulin concentrations (10(-8) M), partial additivity was observed. Like insulin, metformin caused an approximately 1.6-fold increase in the content of both glucose transporter isoforms GLUT1 and GLUT4 in the plasma membrane of cardiac myocytes, with a corresponding decrease in an intracellular membrane fraction. cAMP-elevating treatments depressed the metformin-, but not the insulin-dependent glucose uptake, by 20-30%. In myocytes from diabetic rats, the rate of metformin-activated glucose transport was similar to that of cells from control animals, whereas basal and insulin-stimulated transport were substantially diminished.…

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