Female sex hormone involved in pregnancy can fix brain damage

A break through research indicates that Progesterone, a female sex hormone involved in pregnancy can fix brain damage in human beings. A large scale clinical trial ProTECT III in this regard involving over 1000 patients, over the next three to six years in 17 trauma centers across US would be commenced in March. This was announced at the annual meeting of the American association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) , San Diego

The trial would be led by Dr David Wright, associate professor of emergency medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital will serve as lead center .The study is being funded by The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  "This could transform the way we care for head injury patients. It could be a dramatic improvement. There has been no treatment in 30 years … and now we're on the brink of having something.” Wright said in a statement.

Previous studies had predicted that Progesterone, a C-21 hormone involved in female menstrual cycle and pregnancy can bring the mortality rate as a result of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)  to half. This finding is a part of the earlier 3 year trial, ProTECT I (Progesterone for Traumatic brain injury - Experimental Clinical Treatment conducted on 100 patients.

TBI occurs when the brain is traumatically injured by an outside force as a result of vehicle crashes, violence, assaults etc.The severity of TBI may range from “ mild” ( temporary unconsciousness ) to sever ( extended unconsciousness or Amnesia).

TBI is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. As per statistics provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Of the 1.4 million who suffer from TBI each year , 50000 patients die while 235,000 are hospitalized and 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency department.

As a part of ProTECT III, TBI patients in addition to the standard treatment would be administered either a placebo or Progesterone for a period of 4 days. Nina Gentile, a professor of emergency medicine at the School of Medicine head of the study’s regional efforts declared, “If this study proves that using progesterone in traumatic brain injury cases works, this would be the most promising breakthrough in improving outcomes for traumatic brain injury patients. It is awesome to me that it is the naturally produced hormone progesterone that might rescue brain cells.”