Uptake of 125-I-labelled human placental lactogen and human placental lactogen by the tissues of normal and lactating rats.

The rate of clearance from the circulation and uptake into tissues of radioactive label was studied after i.v. injection of 125-I-labelled human placental lactogen (HPL) into rats at various stages of pregnancy. The half-life was obtained for the disappearance of the trichloroacetic acid-precipitable material from the plasma. The half-life, t1/2(S), calculated over the first 5 min after injection of the hormone was 5.4 equals or minus 1.1 (S.D.) min, while a half-life, t1/2(L), of 27.9 equals or minus 2.3 min was obtained from the decay period of 15-35 min. In the non-pregnant and pregnant rat the highest ratio of the radioactivity in an organ to that in the blood was 12-14:1 in the kidney. That the kidney is mainly involved in the uptake of exogenous HPL is further confirmed by the application of the histochemical immunoperoxidase technique. Human placental lactogen was localized in the cells of the proximal tubules of the cortex and to a lesser extent in the tubular lumen and the tubules of the medulla region. UPTAKE OF HPL in vivo occurs in the mammary gland tissue of the post-partum rat and reaches a maximum uptake between 15 and 30 min after injection of the hormone. Furthermore, specific uptake of HPL was observed on the alveolar cell membranes after the incubation of paraffin-embedded sections of formalin-fixed mammary gland and subsequent treatment by the peroxidase-labelled antibody method. These findings support the work of others who have demonstrated the presence of specific membrane receptors in the mammary gland for hormones with prolactin-like activity.