Table 4.

Efficacy of select estrogens within CEE to sustain the intracellular ATP level following exposure to excitotoxic glutamate in basal forebrain neurons. Neuronal cultures were pretreated with indicated estrogens for 4 days followed by a 5 min exposure to 200 μM glutamate. The culture medium was replaced and cultures were allowed to incubate for an additional 24 hr followed by determination of the intracellular ATP level. Data are represented as mean ± SEM (n = 11 – 14 from 3 experiments). ** P < 0.01 compared to glutamate alone-treated cultures.

Treatment (pg/ml)	ATP Level (% of glutamate alone group)
Control	128.72 ± 4.21**
Glutamate alone	100.00 ± 1.50
17β-estradiol (10)	109.38 ± 2.91
Equilin (1000)	108.44 ± 1.86
Estrone (5000)	93.41 ± 3.85
Δ8,9-dehydroestrone (300)	111.80 ± 4.51