Progesterone and Cortisol levels in plasma of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Correlation with Prognostic Factors and Survival”

GARGIULO MONACHELLI GM; MEYER M; RODRIGUEZ G; GARAY L; SICA REP; DE NICOLA AF; GONZALEZ DENISELLE M.C

Seefeld

Simposio; First International Syposium of the Journal: Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation.; 2010

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder in which selective loss of motor neurons in the cerebral cortex, brainstem and spinal cord leads to progressive paralysis, affecting spinal or bulbar muscles at onset depending on the group of motoneurons most involved at an earlier stage. An understanding of the factors related to ALS prognosis could help physicians and patients to schedule interventions and researchers to design pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic trials. Worst prognostic factors in ALS are: a) advanced age at onset; b) bulbar onset; c) short time between onset and diagnosis. Progesterone (PROG), a steroid hormone related to reproduction, has been recently associated to neuroprotective processes in injury, ischemia and degeneration of the central and peripheral nervous system (CNS and PNS). Its neuroprotective effects make it a particularly promising therapeutic agent for neuroinjury and neurodegenerative diseases. Cortisol, on the other hand, is connected to the response to stress situations and might contribute to neuronal damage. It is known that evening salivary cortisol levels are significantly increased in ALS patients. The goals of the present study are i) to investigate whether progesterone serum levels are modified by ALS prognostic factors; ii) to determine whether cortisol follows the same pattern as progesterone in relation to these factors. We determined serum hormonal levels in 27 patients and 21 controls. Both steroid hormones showed significantly increased serum levels in ALS condition in comparison to controls (mean ± SEM: PROG ALS vs control: 0.54 ± 0.06 vs 0.38 ± 0.04 ng/ml, p