Progesterone effects on transcription factors that drive oligodendrogenesis after spinal cord injury.

JURE, I; GONZÁLEZ SL; DE NICOLA, A; LABOMBARDA, F

Huerta Grande

Congreso; XXIX Congreso anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN); 2014

After spinal cord injury, primary mechanical insult is followed by the activation of a secondary cascade of events that ultimately causes progressive degeneration of the neural tissue and demyelination. In previous publications we have shown that progesterone acts as a remyelinating agent favoring oligodendrocytes precursor cells differentiation. In this work, we analyzed the effects of progesterone on the expression of the transcription factors that drives remyelination after spinal cord injury. Our results shown that 3 days after injury, progesterone administration enhanced RNAm expression of the pro differentiating factors, Mash 1, Sox 10, Nkx2.2 and Olig 2. Progesterone also increased the number of oligodendrocytes precursor cells which expressed Olig 2.  Twenty one days after lesion, progesterone increased the expression of the pro myelinating factor, Olig 1, and reduced the expression of the inhibitors Id-2 and Hes-5. These results suggest that short time of progesterone treatment might enhance oligodendrocytes precursor cells differentiation by increasing stimulating transcription factors. Long time of progesterone treatment might stimulate myelination by increasing the expression of myelinating factors and by reducing the expression of inhibitors of myelination. Progesterone could be a promising therapeutic agent for patients with spinal cord injury and it also could be use as a treatment for demyelinated diseases