Lab study, 2014
Does the hormone drop around the menstrual period change the brain's response to a calming chemical?
In mice, mimicking the hormone drop around the period changed a brain receptor part and made brain cells more sensitive to a calming hormone, affecting seizure risk. This is a mouse study, so it may not work the same way in women.
What they did
Researchers used mice bred to go through a hormone withdrawal that mimics what happens around the menstrual period. They measured changes in brain receptor proteins, tested electrical activity in brain cells, and looked at seizure response to a brain hormone called allopregnanolone (AP), including in mice that were missing a specific receptor part called the delta subunit.
What they found
Mice going through this hormone withdrawal had an increase in the delta subunit of a brain receptor in a region called the dentate gyrus, while other subunits (alpha1, alpha2, beta2, gamma2) did not change. Brain cells in this region became more sensitive to allopregnanolone. These mice were also more prone to seizures. Allopregnanolone still reduced seizures well in normal mice going through this withdrawal, but this effect disappeared in mice without the delta subunit.
What it means for you
This is lab research done in mice, not in people, so it cannot show directly what happens in women with PMS or PMDD. It points to a possible brain mechanism, involving a specific receptor part, that may explain why some hormone-related seizure conditions get worse around the menstrual period, which could help guide future treatment research.
About the study
- Original title
- Perimenstrual-like hormonal regulation of extrasynaptic δ-containing GABAA receptors mediating tonic inhibition and neurosteroid sensitivity
- Authors
- Carver CM, Wu X, Gangisetty O et al.
- Journal
- The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
- Year
- 2014
- Study design
- Lab study
- What was tested
- A brain hormone called allopregnanolone, tested in a mouse model of the hormone drop around the menstrual period
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0596-14.2014
Topics
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