Abstract
Glucose uptake into the mammalian nervous system is mediated by the family of facilitative glucose transporter proteins (GLUT). In this work we investigate how the expression of the main neuronal glucose transporters (GLUT3, GLUT4 and GLUT8) is modified during cerebellar cortex maturation. Our results reveal that the levels of the three transporters increase during the postnatal development of the cerebellum. GLUT3 localizes in the growing molecular layer and in the internal granule cell layer. However, the external granule cell layer, Purkinje cell cytoplasm and cytoplasm of the other cerebellar cells lack GLUT3 expression. GLUT4 and GLUT8 have partially overlapping patterns, which are detected in the cytoplasm and dendrites of Purkinje cells, and also in the internal granule cell layer where GLUT8 displays a more diffuse pattern. The differential localization of the transporters suggests that they play different roles in the cerebellum, although GLUT4 and GLUT8 could also perform some compensatory or redundant functions. In addition, the increase in the levels and the area expressing the three transporters suggests that these roles become more important as development advances. Interestingly, the external granule cells, which have been shown to express the monocarboxylate transporter MCT2, express none of the three main neuronal GLUTs. However, when these cells migrate inwardly to differentiate in the internal granule cells, they begin to produce GLUT3, GLUT4 and GLUT8, suggesting that the maturation of the cerebellar granule cells involves a switch in their metabolism in such a way that they start using glucose as they mature.