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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Fabrication of Tongue Extracellular Matrix and Reconstitution of Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma In Vitro
Published on: June 20, 2018
Glucose transporter-1 expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue
Yoon Seok Choi1, Seok Jin Kim, Dae Sik Kim
1Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
Purpose:
Tumor cells are known to express hypoxia-related proteins such as glucose transporter-1 (Glut-1). These hypoxia-induced changes may allow tumor cells to survive under sustained hypoxic microenvironments, and the surviving tumor cell under hypoxia may develop a more aggressive phenotype and so result in a poor prognosis.
Materials And Methods:
The Glut-1 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, and its association with the prognosis was assessed in 60 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.
Results:
The Glut-1 expression was diffuse with a membranous pattern, and the median percentage of Glut-1 positive tumor cells was 60% (range: 0.0 approximately 90.0%). A high Glut-1 expression (the percentage of positive tumor cells >or= the median value, 60%) was associated with the location of primary lesion, lymph node metastasis status and disease stage (p<0.05). The expression of Glut-1 was correlated with the Ki-67 expression (r=0.406, p=0.001). Microvessel density, as represented by CD31 staining, was also correlated with the Glut-1 expression although its significance is weak (r=0.267, p=0.039). On the univariate analysis, the group with a high Glut-1 expression showed poorer overall survival than the group with a low Glut-1 expression (p<0.05). However, the Glut-1 expression failed to show any independent prognostic significance on the multivariate analysis.
Conclusion:
The expression of Glut-1 may be useful for predicting the prognosis and determining the treatment strategy for the management of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.
Related Concept Videos
Glucose Transporters
Facilitated diffusion-glucose transporters (GLUTs) are encoded by the solute-linked carrier (SLC) family 2, subfamily A gene family, or SLC2A. The 14 GLUT protein members are distributed into three classes:
Glucose Absorption Into the Small Intestine
Secondary Active Transport
Secondary Active Transport
Membrane Proteins
Transcellular Transport of Solutes
