Estrogen protects both sexes against EAE by promoting common regulatory cell subtypes independent of endogenous estrogen.

ABSTRACT: Autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis predominantly affect females. Although high levels of sex hormones, particularly estrogen (E2), can reduce proinflammatory immune responses, it remains unclear if a lack of endogenous sex hormones might affect treatment with exogenous sex hormones. Pretreatment with E2 almost completely prevents intact female and male mice from developing clinical and histological signs of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) by promoting various regulatory immune cell phenotypes. To evaluate the effects of exogenous estrogen in the absence of endogenous sex hormones, the current study compared EAE severity and the emergence of different immunoregulatory cell populations after E2 pretreatment of ovariectomized (OVX) female versus male mice. We fou

SUBMITTER: Seifert HA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5650507 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature