Food deprivation decreases blood galanin-like peptide and its rapid entry into the brain.

Galanin-like peptide (GALP) was recently isolated from the hypothalamus, where its expression is influenced by leptin and food deprivation. Since leptin crosses the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by a saturable transport system that is downregulated by fasting, we examined the effect of leptin and fasting on the entry of GALP into mouse brain. Multiple-time regression analysis showed that the basal influx of 125I-GALP from blood was rapid (K(i) = 9.49 +/- 0.72 x 10(-4) ml/g x min). This influx was not affected by leptin but was significantly decreased by food deprivation for 24 or 48 h, accompanied by decreased immunoreactive plasma GALP at 48 h, but not at 24 h. By contrast, pretreatment of mice fasted for 24 h with glucose resulted in a significant increase in the blood-to-brain influx of GALP that was not accompanied by increased immunoreactive plasma GALP. HPLC showed that most of the GALP crossed the BBB in an intact form, and capillary depletion studies showed that more than 93% of the GALP crossing entered the parenchyma of the brain rather than being bound to the endothelial cells of the capillaries composing the BBB or being reversibly associated with the vasculature. Efflux of 125I-GALP occurred at the rate of the normal reabsorption of CSF, and the octanol-buffer partition coefficient showed insufficient lipophilicity to explain the fast rate of influx. When 125I-GALP was perfused in blood-free buffer, the self-inhibition characteristic of a saturable transport system was evident even though capillary gel electrophoresis showed GALP aggregating as a trimer. Capillary zone electrophoresis showed protein binding of GALP in serum, perhaps facilitating its interactions at the BBB. In particular, these studies show for the first time (1) that immunoreactive GALP is present in blood where (2) its concentrations are reduced by food deprivation, and (3) that there is a rapid blood-to-brain influx of intact GALP (4) which is decreased by fasting and (5) increased by pretreatment with glucose.