Monocarboxylate transporter 3 explained

Monocarboxylate transporter 3 (MCT3) also known as solute carrier family 16 member 8 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC16A8 gene.^[1] MCT is a proton-coupled monocarboxylate transporter. It catalyzes the rapid transport across the plasma membrane of many monocarboxylates such as lactate, pyruvate, branched-chain oxo acids derived from leucine, valine and isoleucine, and the ketone bodies acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetate. It also functions as high-affinity pyruvate transporter.

Expression of SLC16A8 is confined to the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid plexus epithelia, where it is located on the basal membrane in contrast to MCT1 which is found on the apical membrane.

See also

• Monocarboxylate transporter

Further reading

• Yoon H, Donoso LA, Philp NJ . Cloning of the human monocarboxylate transporter MCT3 gene: localization to chromosome 22q12.3-q13.2 . Genomics . 60 . 3 . 366–70 . 1999 . 10493836 . 10.1006/geno.1999.5926 .
• Philp NJ, Wang D, Yoon H, Hjelmeland LM . Polarized expression of monocarboxylate transporters in human retinal pigment epithelium and ARPE-19 cells . Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. . 44 . 4 . 1716–21 . 2003 . 12657613 . 10.1167/iovs.02-0287.
• Wilson MC, Meredith D, Fox JE, Manoharan C, Davies AJ, Halestrap AP . Basigin (CD147) is the target for organomercurial inhibition of monocarboxylate transporter isoforms 1 and 4: the ancillary protein for the insensitive MCT2 is EMBIGIN (gp70) . J. Biol. Chem. . 280 . 29 . 27213–21 . 2005 . 15917240 . 10.1074/jbc.M411950200 . free .
• Cori CF . The glucose-lactic acid cycle and gluconeogenesis . Curr. Top. Cell. Regul. . Current Topics in Cellular Regulation . 18 . 377–87 . 1981 . 10.1016/B978-0-12-152818-8.50028-1 . 7273846 . 9780121528188 .
• Halestrap AP, Meredith D . The SLC16 gene family-from monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) to aromatic amino acid transporters and beyond . Pflügers Arch. . 447 . 5 . 619–28 . 2004 . 12739169 . 10.1007/s00424-003-1067-2 . 15498611 .

Notes and References

1. Garcia CK, Goldstein JL, Pathak RK, Anderson RG, Brown MS . Molecular characterization of a membrane transporter for lactate, pyruvate, and other monocarboxylates: implications for the Cori cycle . Cell . 76 . 5 . 865–73 . Mar 1994 . 8124722 . 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90361-1 . 22137883 .