 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A hormone women produce during pregnancy may help treat multiple sclerosis.
University of Calgary researchers report prolactin increases myelin, which improves signaling within the nervous system and helps repair damage in the brain and spinal cord. Prolactin could be used to help treat MS patients.
Text Continues Below
MS causes the body's immune system to attack myelin, which insulates nerve cells and is critical to maintaining the speed of messages being transmitted from cell to cell. A decrease in myelin leads to a progressive loss of sensation and movement.
Researchers compared pregnant and virgin female mice of the same age. When researchers compared cells in the animals' brains and spinal cords, they found pregnant mice had twice as many myelin-producing cells and kept generating new ones during pregnancy. The mice also had 50-percent more myelin coating their nerve cells after giving birth.
During pregnancy, the body appears to be able to repair nerve cells with destroyed myelin faster. Prolactin mimics the effects of pregnancy, increasing both myelin production and repair. The researchers suggest the hormone, which increases during pregnancy, may help trigger the production of new myelin.
MS is more common in women than men. Previous studies have shown women often experience remission of their symptoms during pregnancy.
Researchers report more research on prolactin will be done in animals before the hormone can be tested in humans. The findings also have implications for the other neurological disorders, like spinal cord injuries and stroke.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The Journal of Neuroscience, 2007;27:1812-1823
|
.gif)
