Expression of the BRL-3A insulin-like growth factor binding protein (rBP-30) in the rat central nervous system

The expression of the BRL 3A insulin-like growth factor binding protein (rBP-30) was characterized in rat brain, hypothalamus, and pituitary tissue and cultured neuronal and astroglial cells. The 27K BP expressed by BRL 3A cells (rBP-30) was found to also be expressed in conditioned media from newborn rat astrocytes and fetal neurons, but not in the medium from the neuroblastoma cell line, B104. Moreover, a polyclonal antibody, anti HEC1, specifically immunoprecipitated the BRL 3A BP from the same conditioned media, as well as from rat cerebrospinal and amniotic fluid and from conditioned medium of cells isolated from the neurointermediate lobe of adult rat pituitary. The same antibody also immunoprecipitated hBP-31 from human CSF. Northern blot analyses showed that rBP-30 mRNA was expressed in adult rat brain and pituitary, fetal brain and liver, and in fetal neurons and newborn astrocytes maintained in culture. We conclude that the BRL 3A BP (rBP-30) is the major insulin-like growth factor binding protein in the rat CNS and may be the rat analog of hBP-31, the predominant BP in human CSF.