CBG does not restrict blood-brain barrier corticosterone transport in rabbits.

The metabolic clearance rate of corticosterone in rabbits is unrelated to the physiological concentration of corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) in rabbit plasma. This suggests that corticosterone is available for transport into peripheral tissues in rabbits from the circulating CBG-bound pool, similar to what is known to occur in rat liver. This hypothesis was tested in the present studies, which investigate the transport of corticosterone into rabbit brain from the circulating rabbit or human CBG-bound pool. Corticosterone was readily exchangeable in brain capillaries in vivo from the circulating albumin-bound and rabbit or human CBG-bound pools. The involvement of specific CBG receptors on brain capillary endothelia in this process was investigated with [3H]-labeled human CBG prepared by reductive methylation. The transport of [3H]CBG across rabbit brain capillaries in vivo was immeasurably low, and no specific binding of this radiolabeled plasma protein to isolated brain capillaries in vitro was observed at 37 degrees C during incubations up to 120 min. These studies indicate that the rabbit is a novel system for assessing the role of CBG in delivering corticosterone to peripheral tissues in vivo and that specific endothelial CBG receptors may not participate in the transport process.