Mechanism of glucose transport across the human and rat placental barrier: A review

Glucose is one of the most important substances transferred from the maternal blood to the fetal circulation in the placenta, and its transport across the cellular membranes is mediated by glucose transporters. Facilitated-diffusion glucose transporter GLUT1 is abundant in the placental barrier, as is the case in other blood–tissue barriers, where GLUT1 is present at the critical plasma membranes of the barrier cells. In the human placenta, the microvillous apical and the basal plasma membranes of the syncytiotrophoblast are rich in GLUT1, which molecule seems to be responsible for the transcellular transport of glucose across the placental barrier. In the rat placental labyrinth, two layers of syncytiotrophoblasts (termed syncytiotrophoblasts I and II from the maternal side) serve as a barrier. GLUT1 is abundant at the plasma membrane of syncytiotrophoblast I facing the maternal side, and the plasma membrane of syncytiotrophoblast II facing the fetal side. Numerous gap junctions, made of connexin 26, connect syncytiotrophoblasts I and II, comprising a channel for the transfer of glucose between them. GLUT1 in combination with the gap junction, therefore, seems to serve as the structural basis for the transport of glucose across the rat placental barrier. Microsc. Res. Tech. 38:145–152, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.