Water transport by GLUT2 expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes

The glucose transporter GLUT2 has been shown to also transport water. In the present paper we investigated the relation between sugar and water transport in human GLUT2 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Sugar transport was determined from uptakes of non‐metabolizable glucose analogues, primarily 3‐O‐methyl‐d‐glucopyranoside; key experimental results were confirmed using d(+)‐glucose. Water transport was derived from changes in oocyte volume monitored at a high resolution (20 pl, 1 s). Expression of GLUT2 induced a sugar permeability, PS, of about 5 × 10−6 cm s−1 and a passive water permeability, Lp, of 5.5 × 10−5 cm s−1. Accordingly, the passive water permeability of a GLUT2 protein is about 10 times higher than its sugar permeability. Both permeabilities were abolished by phloretin. Isosmotic addition of sugar to the bathing solution (replacing mannitol) induced two parallel components of water influx in GLUT2, one by osmosis and one by cotransport. The osmotic driving force arose from sugar accumulation at the intracellular side of the membrane and was given by an intracellular diffusion coefficient for sugar of 10−6 cm2 s−1, one‐fifth of the free solution value. The diffusion coefficient was determined in oocytes coexpressing GLUT2 and the water channel AQP1 where water transport was predominantly osmotic. By the cotransport mechanism about 35 water molecules were transported for each sugar molecule by a mechanism within the GLUT2. These water molecules could be transported uphill, against an osmotic gradient, energized by the flux of sugar. This capacity for cotransport is 10 times smaller than that of the Na+‐coupled glucose transporters (SGLT1). The physiological role of GLUT2 for intestinal transport under conditions of high luminal sugar concentrations is discussed.