Salud y enfermedad

Salud Mental
Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente
perezrh@imp.edu.mx

ISSN (Versión impresa): 0185-3325 MÉXICO

2000 Ana G. Gutiérrez García / Carlos M. Contreras / José Luis Díaz Meza CÓMO ACTÚA LA PROGESTERONA SOBRE EL SISTEMA NERVIOSO CENTRAL Salud Mental, abril, año/vol. 23, número 002 Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Distrito Federal, México pp.42-48

Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

Cómo actúa la progesterona sobre el sistema nervioso central
Ana G. Gutiérrez-García* Carlos M. Contreras* José Luis Díaz-Meza*

Summary
The brain has an enzymatic ability to biosynthesize cholesterol, which is a predecessor of all steroids. Therefore, progesterone, agonadal steroid, is also biosynthesized in the nervous system by glial cells, and possibly by certain neuronal populations as well. Progesterone and its reduced metabolites exert a wide spectrum of biological activity on the central and peripheral nervous system. These effects not only affect the reproductive regulation, but also exert multiple actions on the brain when acting directly on themembrane receptors, thus reproducing some actions of the neurotransmitters for which a series of effects associated with diverse behavior patterns have been proposed. The presence of this steroid in different regions of the brain seems to play a neuromodulatory physiological role in the development of stress and aggression, and influence mood and sexual behavior. Its designation as neurosteroids isjustified. The effects of progesterone on the central nervous system involves both genomic and non genomic actions on different neurotransmission systems. Diverse clinical and experimental studies suggest that progesterone, besides exerting trophic functions through paracrine/ autocrine actions, is also able to modulate systems of membrane receptors, such as the serotonergic, noradrenergic anddopaminergic systems. It is important to point out that these four neurotransmitters have been involved in depression and in the actions of antidepressants, particularly in the GABA, and aiso in anxiety processes. Therefore, it has been suggested that progesterone contributes to regulate emotional disorders possibly exerting its actions on brain structures that are part of the limbic system, similarlyas antidepressants. It has been shown that progesterone produces changes in useful behavioral tests for testing anxiolitic and antidepressant compounds. For instance, some suggestive data on the increased resistence of rats to despair occurs in the phases of the estrous cycle characterized by an increase in the surrounding levels of progesterone, together with an increase of the neuronal activityof the lateral septal nucleus, similarly to that produced by clinically effective antidepressants. Thus, progesterone seems to share some of the actions of the antidepressants. Likewise, progesterone and its reduced metabolites decrease experimentally induced anxiety. These effects are due to their actions as allosteric agonists of the GABAA/benzodiazepine/ Cl- receptor complex, similar effect tothat produced by most of the known anxiolytics, which have affinity for the GABA receptor. These actions explain the anesthetic, hypnotic,
* Laboratorio de Neurofarmacología. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México e Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana. Xalapa, Veracruz, México Correspondencia: Dr. Carlos M. Contreras, A. P. 320, Xalapa91000, Veracruz, México. Tel-fax (28) 12-57-48, e-mail:cmc@bugs. invest.uv.mx Recibido primera versión: 3 de septiembre de 1999 Recibido segunda versión: 29 de octubre de 1999 Aceptado: 12 de enero de 2000

and anxiolytic effects of some progestagens. However, the physiological significance of the effects of progesterone and its metabolites on the central neurotransmission still remains...