Ontogeny of mineralocorticoid (type 1) receptors in brain and pituitary: an in vivo autoradiographical study.

The ontogeny of high affinity [3H]corticosterone uptake and retention in brain and pituitary of 24-h adrenalectomized rats was examined using autoradiography of in vivo labeled brain sections. Our data indicate: (1) There is specific uptake of radiolabeled steroid in both brain and pituitary already at 2 days of age, following administration of a tracer (2 microCi/g body wt.) dose of [3H]corticosterone. This uptake is maximum around 4-8 days of age and decreases towards adult values around postnatal day 16. (2) High affinity uptake, at least in the brain, probably represents mostly binding to the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and not to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), as it was not displaced by an excess dose of a GR antagonist, RU 38486, and its location in the hippocampus resembled that of MRs in the adult animal. The tracer amounts of [3H]corticosterone circulating after injection in the rat pups resulted in steroid levels comparable to basal levels of non-adrenalectomized animals of equivalent age. Thus, MRs may be the receptors mainly responsible for mediating physiological effects of glucocorticoids during early ontogeny.