A steroid hormone released during the metabolism of progesterone (the female sex hormone), Progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone, has the potential to minimize response of the brain to stress.
The finding was disclosed by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Atlanta’s Center for Behavioral Neuroscience.
In the study, Emory researchers Donna Toufexis, PhD, Michael Davis, PhD and Carrie Davis, BS, and Alexis Hammond, BS, of Spelman College, compared how female rats with different levels of the sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, reacted to loud noises after injections of CRF into the brain’s lateral ventricles. CRF injections usually increase the “acoustic startle response” in this test used to gauge stress and anxiety, a phenomenon called CRF-enhanced startle.
In the first experiment, the scientists compared acoustic startle responses after CRF injection in an estrogen-only group, an estrogen-plus-progesterone group and a control group that did not receive any sex hormones. All the rats lacked ovaries and the ability to produce sex hormones naturally. Acoustic startle response was unaffected in the estrogen-only group and the control group. In the estrogen-plus-progesterone group, however, CRF-enhanced startle was significantly lower than in the other groups.
The scientists found evidence suggesting that brain’s response to corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a peptide hormone that plays an important role in the stress response in animals, gets minimized by progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone.
A leading medical authority has criticized usage of anti-aging hormones in response to a recently released report “The use of hormones for “anti-aging”: a review of efficacy and safety,” by the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council.
The example demonstrated by the AMA was applauded by Dr. Thomas T. Perls, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. AMA recently made an assessment of benefits and risks associated with growth hormone, testosterone, estrogen, and DHEA for anti-aging.
“The AMA’s review of the risks and benefits of these hormones in the setting of anti-aging and athletic enhancement is very important given its inclusion of the consensus and position statements of the key professional medical societies as well as the federal agencies that guard public health.” states Dr. Perls in the editorial.
The editorial summarizes the AMA’s assessment for each of the purported anti-aging hormones and essentially the bottom line of his argument is that in terms of anti-aging, the risks of these hormones out-weigh the little or no benefit. Dr. Perls denounces the marketing of these hormones, particularly growth hormone and anabolic steroids (anabolic steroids are variations of testosterone), for anti-aging. He also provides guidelines for spotting “red flags of quackery” and basic advice that physicians can lend to their patients in their pursuit of healthy aging.
The efforts of AMA were appreciated by Dr. Perls in an editorial appearing in the Future Medicine journal Aging Health.
Concentrations of sex hormones, estrogen in women and testosteronein men, may have a positive effect on the regenerative potential of cartilage tissue, according to researchers from Germany.
It was suggested during a study that hormone replacement in the joint fluid of men and women can be advantageous when it comes to treating late stages of human osteoarthritis (OA) by regenerating damaged tissue.
Nicolai Miosge, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues from the August University in Goettingen, Germany examined the regenerative potential of chondrogenic progenitor cells (CPCs) that are present in arthritic tissue during the late stages of OA. The research team speculated that these CPCs might be influenced by sex steroids, and therefore hormone replacement therapy directed to the joint fluid could be beneficial in restoring damaged tissue. Tissue samples from 372 patients who underwent total knee replacement were analyzed. The mean age was 71 years of age for men and 72 years for women, with women representing 64.25% of participants.
Estrogens are known to influence bone metabolism and researchers found that 17β-estradiol (E2), which increases calcium deposition in both sexes, was present in the joint fluid of study participants. CPCs positive for estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ) as well as androgen receptors were present in the OA tissue as well. Both estrogen and testosterone influenced the expression of all 3 receptor genes and the CPCs by regulating gene expression.
The results of this evidence-based study appeared in an issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.
There is a possible link between a specific genetic variation and an increased risk for severe premenstrual depression, as per scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Mental Health.
This psychiatric condition, known as a premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, is considered to affect approximately 8 percent of women in their childbearing years and is featured by severe irritability and anxiety during second half of the menstrual cycle.
Compared to the control group, women with PMDD were significantly more likely to have the ESR1 gene variants, the study found.
“While these are preliminary findings that require replication in larger studies, we would argue that this may explain part of the variance among women in the susceptibility to developing this mood disorder,” Rubinow said. “Studies have shown that PMDD is characterized by abnormal sensitivity to reproductive steroidslike estrogen. As a receptor for the hormone that can trigger the onset of PMDD symptoms, ESR1 has clear physiologic relevance for this disorder.”
The authors acknowledge that as with other complex genetic disorders, the contribution to PMDD of polymorphisms in a single gene may not be large. In addition, they also noted that the findings may be telling us more about the control group.
Dr. David R. Rubinow, the study’s senior author and the Meymandi distinguished professor and chair of psychiatry at UNC School of Medicine, remarked that this study could help in obtaining important clues as to how some women suffer from mood changes while others do not besides finding the nature of that susceptibility.
A steroid hormone released during the metabolism of progesterone (the female sex hormone), Progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone, has the potential to minimize response of the brain to stress.
A leading medical authority has criticized usage of anti-aging hormones in response to a recently released report “The use of hormones for “anti-aging”: a review of efficacy and safety,” by the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council.
Concentrations of sex hormones, estrogen in women and 
There is a possible link between a specific genetic variation and an increased risk for severe premenstrual depression, as per scientists at the 