The Neuroprotective Effects Of Progesterone And Estrogen In Hippocampus Of Alzheimer's Disease Rat

Objective To study the effects of progesterone and estrogen on Alzheimer disease (AD) rodent model rat by analyzing the changes of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), choline acetyl transferase(ChAT),5-hydroxytryptamine 2A (5-ht2A) and the expression of neuronal apoptosis.Methods Wistar rat were injected with Amyloid-9-Protein(1--42) intracranially on hippocampal,and then given progesterone and estrogen for 1 month; Morris water maze, immunohistochemistry, Western blot, tunel staining and Nissl staining were used to analysis the altered changes of GFAP,ChAT,5-ht2A and neuronal apoptosis in hippocampus of AD model.Results 1.Morris water maze results showed that the latency of progesterone, estrogen, estrogen+ progesterone group, sham operation groups were shorter than control (P<0.05); progesterone and estrogen groups were shorter than 2. Immunohistochemistry showed the number of GFAP positive cells in progesterone, estrogen, estrogen+progesterone group, sham operation groups were less than the control group, progesterone, estrogen groups were less than estrogen+progesterone group; ChAT,5-ht2A positive cells were more than control group (P<0.05), estrogen groups were more than estrogen+progesterone group.3. Western blot analysis showed that the gray value of GFAP in progesterone, estrogen, estrogen+progesterone group, sham operation group was lower than the control group and the gray values of ChAT,5-ht2A were higher than control(P<0.05).4 Tunel staining showed apoptosis cells in progesterone, estrogen, estrogen+progesterone group, sham operation group were decreased than control (P<0.05), estrogen+progesterone group was less than progesterone and estrogen groups.5. Nissl staining indicated that progesterone, estrogen, estrogen+progesterone group, sham group had the more neurons control (P<0.05), estrogen+ progesterone group was more than progesterone and estrogen groups. Conclusion Progesterone can reduce the expression of GFAP, increase the expression of ChAT,5-ht2A in hippocampus, alleviate neuronal apoptosis, maintain neuronal survival, improve the function of learning and memory in AD rats, which suggest the treatments of progesterone and estrogen may be adopted as a effective methods for brain's degeneration, estrogen+progesterone group had the lower effect on GFAP,ChAT,5-ht2A receptor's expression, but it had the more effect on the number of neurons and apoptosis.