Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, New York, USA.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Aug;1204:104-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05529.x.
The surprising discovery in 1990 that estrogen modulates hippocampal structural plasticity launched a whole new field of scientific inquiry. Over the past two decades, estrogen-induced spinogenesis has been described in several brain areas involved in cognition in a number of species, in both sexes and on multiple time scales. Exploration into the interaction between estrogen and aging has illuminated some of the hormone's neuroprotective effects, most notably on age-related cognitive decline in nonhuman primates. Although there is still much to be learned about the mechanisms by which estrogen exerts its actions, key components of the signal transduction pathways are beginning to be elucidated and nongenomic actions via membrane bound estrogen receptors are of particular interest. Future studies are focused on identifying the most clinically relevant hormone treatment, as well as the potential identification of new therapeutics that can prevent or reverse age-related cognitive impairment by intercepting specific signal transduction pathways initiated by estrogen.
1990 年令人惊讶的发现，雌激素调节海马体结构可塑性，开启了全新的科学研究领域。在过去的二十年中，雌激素诱导的树突棘形成已在多个物种的几个认知相关脑区中被描述，涉及两性和多个时间尺度。对雌激素与衰老相互作用的探索阐明了激素的一些神经保护作用，尤其是在非人类灵长类动物与年龄相关的认知衰退方面。尽管关于雌激素发挥作用的机制还有很多需要了解，但信号转导途径的关键组成部分开始被阐明，通过膜结合雌激素受体的非基因组作用尤其受到关注。未来的研究集中在确定最具临床相关性的激素治疗方法，以及通过阻断雌激素引发的特定信号转导途径，鉴定潜在的新疗法，以预防或逆转与年龄相关的认知障碍。
