Estrogen attenuates hypoxic–ischemic brain injury in neonatal rats

• Published in: European journal of pharmacology 2005-01, Vol.507 (1), p.77-86
• Main Authors: Feng, Yangzheng, Fratkins, Jonathan D., LeBlanc, Michael H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Newborn - physiology; Apoptosis; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - drug effects; Brain - enzymology; Brain - pathology; Caspases - metabolism; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Estrogens - pharmacology; Estrogens - therapeutic use; Female; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain - drug therapy; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain - enzymology; Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain - physiopathology; Male; Medical sciences; Neurology; Neuroprotection; Oxygen radical; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Stroke; Thiobarbituric acid reacting substance; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system
• ISSN: 0014-2999; 1879-0712
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2004.11.039

Estrogen is neuroprotective in adult animals. We wished to determine if estrogen protects against brain injury in the newborn. Four-day-old rat pups were treated with subcutaneously implanted pellets containing 0.05 mg (2.4 μg/day) of 17β-estradiol or vehicle, designed to release the estrogen over 21 days. At 7 days old the pups had the right carotid artery ligated followed by 2.5 h of 8% oxygen. Brain damage was evaluated by weight deficit of the right hemisphere at 22 days following hypoxia. Estradiol treatments reduced brain weight loss from −17.4±2.8% S.E.M. in the vehicle group ( n=32) to −9.3±2.7% in the treated group ( n=32, P