Estrogen helps fight MS, arthritis

U.S. researchers said they have found how estrogen can fight the effects of multiple sclerosis, arthritis and diabetes.

U.S. researchers said they have found how estrogen can fight the effects of multiple sclerosis, arthritis and diabetes.Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center have uncovered the mechanism by which estrogen, produced in high volumes during pregnancy, can boost the expression and number of certain regulatory cells that are key to combating the effects of MS and other autoimmune diseases.For years, doctors have suggested the best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy. Now, the researchers have shown how the hormone strengthens the function of T cells known as CD4+CD25+, and a regulatory protein called FoxP3. The cells are important for protecting mice against a model for human MS called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE.Autoimmune diseases have been associated with a deficiency of FoxP3, whose expression is a reliable indicator of T-cell function and development.The researchers said understanding how estrogens boost T cells to fight MS could lead to the development of new, estrogen-like drugs that could increase the cells without the female hormone’s side effects. (Source: United Press Health, August 2004)