Estrogen Effects on Traumatic Brain Injury

This book demystifies, deconstructs, and simultaneously humanizes the field of estrogen-mediated neuroprotection following TBI, making the subject approachable to both researchers and advanced students. Bringing together leading researchers and practitioners to explain the basis for their work, methods, and their results, chapters explore what is known about the role of estrogens following damage to the brain. With topics covering induction of estrogen response, consequences of estrogen action, and mechanisms underlying estrogen mediated neuroprotection, Estrogen Effects on Traumatic Brain Injury is of great importance to teachers, researchers, and clinicians interested in the role that estrogens play following traumatic brain injury.

• Written to provide a foundational view of estrogens as neuroprotectors in TBI, appropriate for both researchers and advanced students
• Data Analysis boxes in each chapter help with data interpretation and offer guidelines on how best to understand results
• A multidisciplinary approach to the methods, issues, empirical findings in the field of estrogen mediated neuroprotection
• Detailed focus on how studies relate and build upon each other and the ways different methods of analysis inform each other
• Written to provide clinicians with new and developing treatment options for patients in their field

Graduate students in biological and biomedical sciences, post-doctoral fellows, researchers, neurologists, and clinicians

Chapter 1. Historical Antecedents

• Introduction
• The “INS AND OUTS” of TBI: An Overview
• A History of TBI from Antiquity Through the 19th Century
• From the Bench to the Clinic: TBI in the 20th and 21st Century
• Conclusions and Future Thoughts
• Acknowledgements
• References

Chapter 2. Estrogen Actions in the Brain

• Introduction
• Steroid Hormones
• Blood–Brain Barrier and Glial Cells
• Estradiol and Brain Sexual Differentiation
• Rapid Estrogen Signaling in the Brain
• Estrogen-Sensitive Brain Regions
• Neurotransmitter Systems
• Estrogens, Aging, and Neuroprotection
• Additional Physiological Effects of Estrogens on the Body
• Conclusions and New Directions
• References

Chapter 3. Induction of Estrogen Response Following Injury

• Introduction
• Reactive Gliosis Following Injury
• New Roles for Glial Cells as Steroid Synthesizing Cells
• Induction of Glial Aromatase Following Injury
• Conclusion and Future Directions
• Acknowledgements
• References

Chapter 4. Astrocytic Aromatization and Injury

• Aromatase is Expressed in Astroglia
• What Induces Astrocytic Aromatase Expression?
• Glial Estrogen Synthesis and Neuroprotection
• Summary and Future Directions
• Further Reading

Chapter 5. Aromatase and Estrogens: Involvement in Constitutive and Regenerative Neurogenesis in Adult Zebrafish

• Introduction
• Unique Features Exhibited by the Brain of Teleost Fish
• Neurosteroid Synthesis and Signaling in the Brain of Adult Zebrafish
• Aromatase B Expression is Restricted to Radial Glia Acting Like Neural Stem Cells
• Involvement of Aromatase and Estrogens in Adult Neurogenesis and Brain Repair in Zebrafish
• Comparison with Mammalian and Nonmammalian Models
• Hypothesis and Perspectives for Estrogen Involvement in Neurogenesis Regarding New Advances in Zebrafish and New Literature in Mammals
• Conclusion
• References

Chapter 6. Neuroprotection by Exogenous Estrogenic Compounds Following Traumatic Brain Injury

• Introduction
• Neuroprotective Steroids
• TBI Protection Strategies
• Role of Neuroactive Steroids in TBI
• Conclusion and Perspectives
• Acknowledgements
• References

Chapter 7. Neuroprotective Effects of Estrogen Following Neural Injury

• Introduction
• Molecular Mechanism of Neurodegeneration and Apoptosis
• Estrogen Receptors: Types and Localization in the Brain
• Apoptotic and Neuroprotective Genes and Pathways Modulated by Estrogen
• Estrogens as Antioxidants
• Neural Injury and the Immune Response
• Estrogen and the Immune Response
• Estrogen and Traumatic Brain Injury
• Estrogen and Alzheimer’s Disease
• Estrogen and Ischemic Stroke
• Limitations/Future Directions
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

Chapter 8. Neuroprotection with Estradiol in Experimental Perinatal Asphyxia: A New Approach

• Perinatal Asphyxia Overview
• Neuroprotective Role of Estradiol in Rat Models of Hypoxia
• Signaling Pathways of the Estradiol Neuroprotection
• Conclusion
• References

Chapter 9. Cerebrovascular Stroke: Sex Differences and the Impact of Estrogens

• What is Stroke?
• Role of Estrogen
• Hemorrhagic Stroke
• Ischemic Stroke
• The Concept of Timing
• Sex Differences in Ischemic Stroke Therapies
• Sex-Specific Guidelines for Stroke
• References

Chapter 10. Concluding Statements and Current Challenges