GLUT1 is redundant in hypoxic and glycolytic nucleus pulposus cells of the intervertebral disc

Glucose is critical to the development, homeostasis, and survival of nucleus pulposus cells. GLUT1 is a major glucose transporter, a NP phenotypic cell marker, and highly expressed in nucleus pulposus (NP) cells, however its level of importance in NP cell development and homeostasis is unknown. We used microarrays to explore the transcriptomics of differentially expressed genes between wildtype and Glut1 cKO NP cells in 9-month-old mice. NP tissue were dissected from discs from control (n=6) and K19Cre; Glut1 cKO mice (n=6). Mice were injected with Tamoxifen at 3-months-old and aged until they became 9-months-old. RNA extraction was prefomed and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.