Both lung disease and elevation of blood glucose are associated with increased glucose concentration (from 0.4 to ~4.0 mM) in the airway surface liquid (ASL). This perturbation of ASL glucose makes the airway more susceptible to infection by respiratory pathogens. ASL is minute (~1 μl/cm(2)) and the measurement of glucose concentration in the small volume ASL is extremely difficult. Therefore, we sought to develop a fluorescent biosensor with sufficient sensitivity to determine glucose concentrations in ASL in situ. We coupled a range of environmentally sensitive fluorophores to mutated forms of a glucose/galactose-binding protein (GBP) including H152C and H152C/A213R and determined their equilibrium binding properties. Of these, GBP H152C/A213R-BADAN (Kd 0.86 ± 0.01 mM, Fmax/F0 3.6) was optimal for glucose sensing and in ASL increased fluorescence when basolateral glucose concentration was raised from 1 to 20 mM. Moreover, interpolation of the data showed that the glucose concentration in ASL was increased, with results similar to that using glucose oxidase analysis. The fluorescence of GBP H152C/A213R-BADAN in native ASL from human airway epithelial cultures in situ was significantly increased over time when basolateral glucose was increased from 5 to 20 mM. Overall our data indicate that this GBP is a useful tool to monitor glucose homoeostasis in the lung.
