Pregnancy Hormone Estriol May Reverse Myelin Damage in Multiple Sclerosis

Now we just need to know if stroke causes myelin damage. WHOM will answer that fuckingly simple question? With NO stroke leadership, nothing ever gets solved in stroke.  You're screwed along with your children and grandchildren when they have strokes.

Pregnancy Hormone Estriol May Reverse Myelin Damage in Multiple Sclerosis

Summary: Treating a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) with the pregnancy hormone estriol could reverse myelin breakdown in the brain’s cortex, a primary area affected in MS.

MS results in inflammation that damage the myelin coating around nerve fibers in the brain’s cortex, leading to disability worsening. Current MS treatments only target inflammation and can’t repair myelin damage.

However, the new study found that estriol not only prevented brain atrophy but also induced remyelination, suggesting it could repair MS-induced damage.

Key Facts:

1. Estriol, a type of estrogen hormone produced in pregnancy, has previously been found to reduce brain atrophy and improve cognitive function in MS patients.
2. The research is a major advancement as cortical atrophy in MS patients is associated with permanent worsening of disability, such as cognitive decline, visual impairment, weakness, and sensory loss.
3. This UCLA-led study is the first to demonstrate that estriol treatment can induce remyelination in the cortex, indicating it can potentially repair, rather than merely slow down, the destruction of myelin.

Source: UCLA

Treating a mouse model of multiple sclerosis with the pregnancy hormone estriol reversed the breakdown of myelin in the brain’s cortex, a key region affected in multiple sclerosis, according to a new UCLA Health study published in Laboratory Investigation.

In multiple sclerosis, inflammation spurs the immune system to strip away the protective myelin coating around nerve fibers in the brain’s cortex, hampering electrical signals sent and received by the brain.

Atrophy of the cortex in MS patients is associated with permanent worsening of disability, such as cognitive decline, visual impairment, weakness and sensory loss.

This is the first study to identify a treatment that could repair myelin in the cortex, undoing some of the damage caused by MS. Credit: Neuroscience News

No currently available treatments for MS can repair damage to myelin. Instead, these treatments target inflammation to reduce symptom flare-ups and new nerve tissue scarring.