Adult rat brains contain LH/hCG receptors, and these receptors are functional in neuroendocrine regulation and behaviors. Since glial cells are important for development, maturation, and functioning of the brain, we tested the hypothesis that these cells from neonatal rat brains may also contain functional LH/hCG receptors. Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplified an expected 256 base-pair LH/hCG receptor fragment from glial cells. This fragment can bind to LH/hCG receptor cDNA in Southern blotting. Northern blotting demonstrated that glial cells contain a major 2.6-kilobase (kb) and a minor 4.3-kb transcript of LH/hCG receptors. Western immunoblotting demonstrated that glial cells also contain an 80-kDa receptor protein and that its levels are significantly higher in secondary and tertiary glial cells than in primary glial cells. Immunocytochemistry confirmed that LH/hCG receptor immunostaining is present in glial cells. Since glial cells are quite active in synthesis of prostaglandins (PGs), we investigated the effect of highly purified hCG on PGD₂ and PGE₂ levels. The results showed that culturing secondary glial cells for three days with highly purified hCG resulted in a dose-dependent and hormone-specific increase in PGD₂ and a decrease in PGE₂ levels in the medium as compared to control levels.

In summary, we conclude that cultured glial cells from neonatal rat brains contain functional LH/hCG receptors. Through regulation of PG synthesis, LH and hCG may influence glial cell functions that are important for neonatal brain development and function.