Blood-Brain Glucose Transfer: Repression in Chronic Hyperglycemia

Diabetic patients with increased plasma glucose concentrations may develop cerebral symptoms of hypoglycemia when their plasma glucose is rapidly lowered to normal concentrations. The symptoms may indicate insufficient transport of glucose from blood to brain. In rats with chronic hyperglycemia the maximum glucose transport capacity of the blood-brain barrier decreased from 400 to 290 micromoles per 100 grams per minute. When plasma glucose was lowered to normal values, the glucose transport rate into brain was 20 percent below normal. This suggests that repressive changes of the glucose transport mechanism occur in brain endothelial cells in response to increased plasma glucose.