Progesterone in the healthy and injured nervous system.

GENOUUN R; LABOMBARDA F; DELESPIERRE B; FAMOSE S; MEFFRE D; GONZÁLEZ DENISELLE MC; STEIN D; DE NICOLA A; SCHUMACHER M

Serdeña, Italia

Simposio; . International Behavioural Neuroscience Society 19th annual meeting; 2010

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, experimentally induced ischemia, spinal cord lesions and a genetic model of motoneuron disease. I will summarize our recent findings concerning the synthesis, metabolism, and receptors of progesterone in the healthy and injured nervous system. Emerging evidence from our studies, suggest that the increase in neurosteroid synthesis may be part of the mechanisms by which nerve cells cope with injury, and that different mechanisms of progesterone signalling are activated in the intact and injured nervous system