Chronic intracerebroventricular infusion of insulin failed to alter brain insulin-binding sites, food intake, and body weight.

The present study was performed to explore the role of exogenous insulin in CSF in the control of energy balance in the rat. For this purpose, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats carrying an indwelling cannula in the right lateral cerebral ventricle were infused for a maximum of 10 days with insulin (Actrapid) at various rates (starting at 0, 45, 85, 170, and 600 ng/day) or anti-insulin antibody (IgG fraction; diluted 1:10 wt/vol) with an osmotic minipump. All those treatments did not modify the growing rates; neither total daily food intake nor the circadian rhythm of food intake was further modified. The chronic insulin infusion starting at 600 ng/day resulted in a chronic significant increase in CSF insulin levels without changing the plasma insulin level. It failed to alter specific insulin binding sites to Triton X-100 solubilized microsomal membranes from various brain areas (cerebral cortex, olfactory bulbs, and lateral and medial hypothalami) at the end of the 5- or 10-day period of insulin infusion. Purification of insulin receptors on a wheat germ agglutinin did not reveal any further effect of insulin. From these results, it seems unlikely that the input to the brain insulin-effector systems could arise from CSF insulin.