Developing rat brain binds monoiodinated insulin isomers similarly to other extrahepatic target tissues.

We recently reported a series of binding and metabolic studies which led to the conclusion that the developing rat brain is a target tissue for insulin. Since insulin target tissues (extrahepatic) are capable of differentiating between various monoiodoinsulin isomers, we measured the binding of the B26 monoiodoinsulin isomer compared to the A14 in newborn rat brain preparations to determine if the developing rat brain shared the same relative binding of these isomers (viz. B26 greater than A14) with other extrahepatic tissues. The B26 isomer bound 1.57, 1.50 and 1.34 times as much as did the A14 to brain membranes, glia and neurons, respectively, whereas both isomers were bound equally by liver plasma membranes. Competition-inhibition curves were generated using homologous unlabeled (127I) insulin isomers. Binding of the B26 isomer was greater than the A14 at all concentrations. Scatchard plots showed that the receptor concentrations for the two isomers were similar, and affinity profiles showed that the differences in binding could be accounted for by the greater affinity of the receptors for the B26 isomer. The results indicate that the developing rat brain shares with other extrahepatic insulin target tissues a greater affinity for B26 monoiodoinsulin isomer compared to A14. Future studies of insulin binding should avoid using mixtures of iodinated insulins so that a uniform interpretation of data is made possible.