The gonadal steroid hormone estrogen is essential for reproduction and plays a critical role in the brain and the pituitary in regulating the sequence of hormonal events that result in female reproduction. In recent years, however, we have begun to appreciate that estrogen also exerts many critical effects on non-reproductive systems as well. Estrogen enhances cognition during normal aging as well as plays a protective role against a variety of neurodegenerative conditions. As our lifespan continues to increase, women are spending a greater proportion of their lives in a hypoestrogenic state. Thus, our works aims to understand the tissue-specific mechanisms of estrogen action to help design strategies of replacement that will provide protection in the brain without increasing potentially deleterious effects of long-term estrogen therapy in other tissues.

Contact: melinda.wilson@uky.edu