Glucose erythrocyte transporter in women with breast cancer: changes in lipid composition of erythrocyte membrane.

Abstract

Women with breast cancer show altered blood glucose compartmentation compared with healthy women, with lower concentrations in plasma and similar concentrations in blood cells. The goal of this paper was to study whether this pattern was the result of changes in the erythrocyte glucose transporter and, if so, to assess the possible changes in lipid environment of the erythrocyte membrane. In 12 women with different degrees of breast cancer and 12 age-matched healthy women, the lipid composition of erythrocyte membrane and erythrocyte glucose transport were studied. Women with breast cancer showed changes in both the kinetic variables and the lipid environment of the glucose transporter, in keeping with an increase in fluidity of the erythrocyte membrane. The results obtained would account, in part, for the changes in glucose compartmentation.