14 DAY TRIAL // During a new scientific study, aging female rats were administered estrogen and MPA, a synthetic form of progesterone, for prolonged periods of time. Though the rodents' front cortices were supposed to degenerate on account of old age, the chemicals appeared to boost synapse strength.
The finding is remarkable, primarily because experts may have found a way of preventing the effects of aging from settling into the prefrontal cortex of rats. The technique could have significant consequences, if researchers manage to transpose it to humans.
Estrogen and MPA led to a significant increase in the amount of a specific protein marker in this region of the brain, which is used to reveal data on synapse health. A synapse is the connection between two nerve cells called neurons.
These discoveries run contrary to the results of an investigation called Women's Health Initiative, which began in 1991 and is still ongoing. The research suggests that women who receive long-term estrogen or estrogen/MPA treatments are at higher risk of suffering from stroke and dementia.
The study mostly deals with women aged 50 to 79. Though the link between these therapies and their adverse side effects is clear, scientists say that hormone therapy needs to be started immediately after menopause sets in, and not years or decades afterwards. The results, they argue, are very different.
University of Illinois scientists made this clear in the new research. Details of the new investigation were published in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Menopause, PsychCentral reports.
“The prefrontal cortex is the area of the human brain that loses the most volume with age. So understanding how anything affects the prefrontal cortex is important,” UI psychology professor Janice Juraska explains.
The expert, who is also an affiliate of the Beckman Institute, led the new investigation. The other co-leader of the research was UI PhD student Nioka Chisholm.
The paper they published is entitled “Effects of Long-Term Treatment with Estrogen and Medroxyprogesterone Acetate on Synapse Number in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex of Aged Female Rats.”
“Our data indicate that re-examining the effects of estrogen and MPA, when first given to women around the time of menopause, is merited,” Juraska concludes.