In health, glucose is freely filtered by the glomerulus and more than 99% is reabsorbed by the kidney. In most adults, this amounts to approximately 180 g of glucose being recovered by the renal tubules on a daily basis. As a result of both facilitative and secondary active transport in the proximal and distal renal tubules, less than 0.5 g/day of glucose is found in the urine. Once the plasma concentration of glucose exceeds 11 mmol/L, tubular glucose reabsorption is overcome and the excess will appear in the urine.

Facilitative transport occurs in essentially all cell types and is driven by the concentration gradient across cellular membranes and is mediated predominantly by members of the GLUT transporter family. Secondary active transport occurs in the renal tubules (predominantly proximal tubule) and is mediated by members of the sodium glucose co-transporter (SGLT) transporter family. Residing in the luminal brush border of the proximal tubule of the renal cortex, SGLT2 is responsible for the majority of tubular reabsorption of filtered glucose. SGLT1 is responsible for reabsorption of the remaining glucose.