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TESTOSTERONE AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Nancy Sicotte
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA nsicotte@ucla.edu
Men are less susceptible to many autoimmune diseases including multiple
sclerosis (MS). Possible causes for this include sex hormones and/or
sex chromosome effects. Testosterone treatment ameliorates experimental
allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), but the effect of testosterone
supplementation on MS is not known.
Data from a recently completed pilot study of testosterone treatment
will be presented. Ten men with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) were
studied during a six-month untreated observation period followed
by twelve months of daily treatment with testosterone gel. One year
of treatment with testosterone gel was associated with improvements
in spatial and working memory performance, a slowing of the rate
of brain atrophy, and increases in brain derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF) production. There was no significant effect of testosterone
treatment on gadolinium enhancing lesion numbers or volumes or on
T2 lesion volumes.
These exploratory findings suggest that testosterone treatment is
safe, well tolerated and has potential neuroprotective effects in
men with RRMS. Previous studies exploring the effects of estrogen
in women with MS will also be reviewed and future directions for
the use of hormones in MS will be discussed.
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