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Rat liver microsomal membranes have been shown to contain an UDP-glucose binding protein. Its mol. wt was estimated to be 120 000 by gel filtration and by ultracentrifugation in a sucrose gradient. The receptor activity was purified by gel filtration on Sephadex G200 and analysed by gel-electrofocusing.

Rat liver microsomal membranes have been shown to contain a biosynthetic pathway of UDP-glucose. In addition, they are able to bind UDP-glucose in a reversible manner, As UDP-glucose is also metabolized in these membranes, the study of the binding has been performed with a microsomal Triton X 100 extract. This reversible binding depends on pH (maximum at pH 8.1) and manganous ions, and disappears at pH 6.5. It exhibits a high affinity (K-diss equals 3 mu M), and a narrow specifity for UDP-glucose. Proteolytic digestion inhibits the binding up to 90%, showing that the UDP-glucose receptor has a proteic nature. These binding characteristics have been also found in the membranes themselves, indicating that the detergent solubilization does not destroy the protein binding capacity.