Multiple sclerosis is thought to be an autoimmune disease that causes lesions and demyelination of axons in the central nervous system. A reduction in relapses is seen in the third trimester of pregnancy when estrogen levels are highest, followed by an increase in relapses in the first three months post-partum when estrogen levels drop. This thesis focuses on the effect of 17beta- and 17alpha-estradiol on myelination and remyelination in cultured rat cerebellar slices. No reproducible effect of 17beta-estradiol on myelination was detected. However, during lysolecithin-induced demyelination it had a possible protective effect in males and females, although it was not statistically significant. During myelination, 100 nM 17alpha-estradiol caused a small but significant decrease in MBP expression in females. During lysolecithin-induced demyelination, it had a possible, but not statistically significant, protective effect in males. Neither 17beta- nor 17alpha-estradiol had a reproducible or significant effect on remyelination in males or females.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/35109 |
| Date | 18 March 2013 |
| Creators | Belo, Cassandra Joy |
| Contributors | Boggs, Joan M. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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