GLUT5 increases fructose utilization and promotes tumor progression in glioma

Fructose is now such an important component of human diets, and several studies have found that some cancer cells could utilize fructose to overcome low glucose micro-environment, but the study on the role of fructose in glioma is rare. To explore the role of fructose in glioma, we detected the proliferation and colony formation ability of glioma cells in fructose medium, and found that the abilities of proliferation and colony formation of glioma cells in fructose medium were similar with abilities in glucose medium, however, fructose just partly restored proliferation ability of normal glial cells. To explore the mechanism, we compared the expression level of GLUT5 (Glucose transporter type 5) in these cell lines, and the results showed that glioma cell lines had higher GLUT5 expression than normal glial cell lines. And knockdown of GLUT5 could significantly inhabit cell proliferation of glioma cells in fructose medium. Furthermore, we found that GLUT5 was also higher expressed in glioma tissues, and GLUT5 expression correlated significantly with glioma malignancy and poor survival of glioma patients (p < 0.01). In addition, we also demonstrated that knockdown of GLUT5 could significantly inhabit tumor proliferation in vivo, and intake fructose could increase tumor volume prominently. Taken together, our data show that fructose can be used by glioma cells, and restrict the fructose intake or targeting GLUT5 could be efficacious strategies in glioma.