M C Gonzalez Deniselle, L Garay, M Meyer, G Gargiulo-Monachelli, F Labombarda, S Gonzalez, R Guennoun, M Schumacher, Alejandro F De Nicola
Far beyond its role in reproduction, progesterone exerts neuro-protective, promyelinating, and anti-inflammatory effects in the nervous system. These effects are amplified under pathological conditions, implying that changes of the local environment sensitize nervous tissues to steroid therapy. The present survey covers our results of progesterone neuroprotection in a motoneuron neurodegeneration model and a neuroinflammation model. In the degenerating spinal cord of the Wobbler mouse, progesterone reverses the impaired expression of neurotrophins, increases enzymes of neurotransmission and metabolism, prevents oxidative damage of motoneurons and their vacuolar degeneration (paraptosis), and attenuates the development of mitochondrial abnormalities...
October 1, 2011: Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation