Expression of nucleoside transporter in freshly isolated neurons and astrocytes from mouse brain

Nucleoside transporters comprise equilibrative ENT1-4 and concentrative CNT1-3. CNTs transport against an intracellular/extracellular gradient and are essential for transmitter removal, independently of metabolic need. ENT1-4 mediate transport until intracellular/extracellular equilibrium of the transported compound, but are very efficient, when the accumulated nucleoside or nucleobase is rapidly eliminated by metabolism. Most nucleoside transporters are membrane-bound, but ENT3 is mainly intracellular. This study uses freshly isolated neurons and astrocytes from two adult mouse strains. In one transgenic strain the neuronal marker Thy1 was associated with a compound fluorescing at one wavelength, and in the other the astrocytic marker GFAP was associated with a compound fluorescent at a different wavelength. Highly purified astrocytic and neuronal populations (as determined by presence/absence of cell-specific genes) were obtained from these mice by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. In each population mRNA analysis was performed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. CNT1 was absent in both cell types; all other nucleoside transporters were expressed to at least a similar degree (in relation to applied amount of RNA and to a house-keeping gene) in astrocytes as in neurons. Astrocytic ENT3 enrichment was dramatic, but it was not up-regulated after fluoxetine-mediated increase in DNA synthesis. A comparison with results obtained in cultured astrocytes shows that the latter are generally compatible with the present findings and suggests that many observations obtained in intact tissue, mainly by in situ hybridization (which also determines mRNA expression) may underestimate astrocytic nucleoside transporter expression.