Pregnancy hormone holds hope for MS

A pregnancy-related hormone could play an important role in treating degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), scientists will claim today.

University of Calgary researchers found that the hormone prolactin encourages the spontaneous production of myelin, a substance which coats the body’s nerve cells and plays a crucial role in transmitting messages in the central nervous system.

During MS, the body’s immune system attacks myelin, resulting in progressive loss of sensation and movement. The condition goes into remission during pregnancy.

In this latest study, the scientists proved for the first time that prolactin, which increases in the body during pregnancy, is directly responsible for the formation of new myelin in the brains and spinal cords of pregnant mice.

When non-pregnant mice with MS-like lesions were injected with prolactin, their myelin was also repaired.

“It is thought that during pregnancy, women’s immune systems no longer destroyed the myelin,” said Dr Samuel Weiss, director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and senior author of the study.

“However, no previous study has tested whether pregnancy actually results in the production of new myelin, which may lead to improvement of symptoms.”

Although further tests on mice are necessary before prolactin can be tested in humans, the researchers are hopeful that treatments using the hormone could target MS and other neurological disorders such as stroke.