Rat and Mouse Brain Corticosterone

A procedure has been developed for determining the amount of corticosterone in mouse and rat brains. Recovery of corticosterone was shown to be between 80 and 90%. Using this procedure, values for basal levels of brain corticosterone have been obtained. Brain corticosterone levels following ether stress were also determined and were shown to change as rapidly as plasma levels. Corticosterone levels in several brain regions as well as its distribution in subcellular fractions have been determined. Chronic injection of ACTH into BALB/cJ female mice elevated brain corticosterone at a time when the plasma levels were not significantly different from those of the saline-injected controls. It is thought that the direct determination of brain corticosterone offers an approach which is potentially enlightening in the study of the interrelationship between plasma glucocorticoids and ACTH secretion. (Endocrinology90: 1091, 1972)