Progesterone and nestorone promote myelin regeneration in chronic demyelinating lesions of corpus callosum and cerebral cortex.

Multiple Sclerosis affects mainly women and consists in intermittent or chronic damages to the myelin sheaths, focal inflammation, and axonal degeneration. Current therapies are limited to immunomodulators and antiinflammatory drugs, but there is no efficient treatment for stimulating the endogenous capacity of myelin repair. Progesterone and synthetic progestins have been shown in animal models of demyelination to attenuate myelin loss, reduce clinical symptoms severity, modulate inflammatory responses and partially reverse the age-dependent decline in remyelination.

The androgen receptor as a therapeutic target for myelin repair in demyelinating diseases.

Steroid hormones exert major influences on the development and functioning of the nervous system, extending well beyond their reproductive effects. There is now also strong experimental evidence for an important role of these hormones in myelin formation. The recent finding that testosterone, via the intracellular androgen receptor, promotes myelin repair, may inspire neurobiologists to take a closer look at this hormone.

Revisiting the roles of progesterone and allopregnanolone in the nervous system: resurgence of the progesterone receptors.

Progesterone is commonly considered as a female reproductive hormone and is well-known for its role in pregnancy. It is less well appreciated that progesterone and its metabolite allopregnanolone are also male hormones, as they are produced in both sexes by the adrenal glands. In addition, they are synthesized within the nervous system.

Distribution of membrane progesterone receptor alpha in the male mouse and rat brain and its regulation after traumatic brain injury.

Progesterone has been shown to exert pleiotropic actions in the brain of both male and females. In particular, after traumatic brain injury (TBI), progesterone has important neuroprotective effects. In addition to intracellular progesterone receptors, membrane receptors of the hormone such as membrane progesterone receptor (mPR) may also be involved in neuroprotection.

Progesterone and progestins: neuroprotection and myelin repair.

Progesterone, known for its role in pregnancy, also exerts marked effects on the nervous system. Its neuroprotective and promyelinating actions, now well documented by experimental studies, make it a particularly promising therapeutic agent for neuroinjury and neurodegenerative diseases. This concept has recently been translated into clinical practice, though there is need for more experimental studies and investigations on the mechanisms of the actions of progesterone.

Progesterone: therapeutic opportunities for neuroprotection and myelin repair.

Progesterone and its metabolites promote the viability of neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Their neuroprotective effects have been documented in different lesion models, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), experimentally induced ischemia, spinal cord lesions and a genetic model of motoneuron disease. Progesterone plays an important role in developmental myelination and in myelin repair, and the aging nervous system appears to remain sensitive to some of progesterone's beneficial effects.