Table 1.
Effects of progesterone and THP on myelination, remyelination and neuroinflammation.
| Steroid | Experimental model | Studied effects | Accions | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prog | Cultures of Schwann cells and DRG neurons | Myelination in PNS | Accelerates myelination and enhances the rate of myelin synthesis | Chan et al., 1998 |
| Prog | Lesion of facial nerve | Remyelination in PNS | Increases the number of Schwann cells and the g-ratio | Chavez et al., 2005; Sclumacher et al., 2012 |
| Prog, DHP, THP | Aged mice | Remyelination in PNS | Reverses morphological myelin abnormalities | Azcoitia et al., 2003 |
| Prog, DHP, THP | Diabetic mice | Remyelination in PNS | Reverses morphological myelin abnormalitie | Melcangi et al., 2011 |
| Prog, DHP, THP | Cultures of Schwann cells and adult sciatic nerve | Myelination in PNS | Increases P0 and PMP22 | Guennoun el al., 2001; Mercier et al., 2001; Magnaghi et al., 2007 |
| THP | Floating spheres cultures | Myelination in CNS | Increases OPP proliferation | Gago et al., 2004 |
| Prog | Cerebellar organotypic cultures | Myelination in CNS | Increases OPC proliferation, the number of mature oligodendrocytes and MBP expression | Ghoumari et al., 2003, 2005 |
| THP | Cerebellar organotypic cultures | Myelination in CNS | Increases MBP expression | Ghoumari et al., 2003, 2005 |
| Prog | Ethidium bromide-induced demyelination | Remyelination in CNS | Increases the number of remyelinated axons | Ibanez et al., 2004 |
| Prog | Spinal cord injury | Remyelination and neuroinflammation in CNS | Increases OPC differentiation, myelin protein expression and OPC survival. Decreases the number of astrocytes and microglial cells and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Promotes anti-inflammatory microglia | Labombarda et al., 2009, 2011; Jure et al., 2018 |
| Prog Nestorone | Lysolecithin-induced demyelination in cerebellar organotypic cultures | Remyelination in CNS | Increases MBP expression and OPC migration | Hussain et al., 2011 |
| Prog Nestorone | Cuprizone-induced demyelination | Remyelination and neuroinflammation in CNS | Increases myelin protein expression and the number of oligodendrocytes. Decreases the number of microglial and astrocytes | El-Etr et al., 2015 |
| THP | Trangenic mice of Alzheimer’s disease | Remyelination in CNS | Promotes the regeneration of white matter | Brinton et al., 2013 |
| Prog THP | EAE model | Remyelination and neuroinflammation in CNS | Increases remyelination; Decreases pro-inflammatory cytokines and microglial cells. | Garay et al., 2012; Noorbakhsh et al., 2014 |
| Prog | Cuprizone-induced demyelination | Neuroinflammation in CNS | Promotes the switch from pro-inflamatory to anti-inflammatory microglia | Aryanpour et al., 2017 |
Prog: Progesterone; DHP: dihidroprogesterone; THP: tetrahidroprogesterone; DRG: dorsal root ganglia; CNS: central nervous system; PNS: peripheral nervous system; EAE: experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; OPC: oligodendrocyte precursor cells; MBP: myelin-basic protein; OPP: oligodendrocyte pre-progenitors; P0: glycoprotein zero; PMP22: peripheral myelin protein 22.