Central aromatization: a dramatic and responsive defense against threat and trauma to the vertebrate brain.

Central aromatization: a dramatic and responsive defense against threat and trauma to the vertebrate brain. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2019 Nov 28;:100816 Authors: Duncan KA, Saldanha CJ Abstract Aromatase is the requisite and limiting enzyme in the production of estrogens from androgens. Estrogens synthesized centrally have also emerged as a potent neuroprotectant in the vertebrate brain. Studies in rodents and songbirds have identified key mechanisms that underlie both; the injury-dependent induction of central aromatization, and the protective effects of centrally synthesized estrogens. Injury-induced aromatase expression in astrocytes occurs following a broad range of traumatic brain damage including excitotoxic, penetrating, and concussive injury. Responses to neural insult such as edema and inflammation involve signaling pathways the components of which are excellent candidates as inducers of this astrocytic response. Finally, estradiol from astrocytes exerts a paracrine neuroprotective influence via the potent inhibition of inflammatory pathways. Taken together, these data suggest a novel role for neural aromatization as a protective mechanism against the threat of inflammation and suggests that central estrogen provision is a wide-ranging neuroprotectant in the vertebrate brain. PMID: 31786088 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Authors: Tags: Front Neuroendocrinol Source Type: research