Estradiol is a neuroprotective factor in in vivo and in vitro models of brain injury

Many clinical studies suggest that estrogen enhances memory and cognition a nd protects against neurodegenerative diseases and injury associated with s troke or stress. These results are strongly supported by experiments perfor med in animal models using both in vivo and in vitro methods. We present he re data from our lab that establishes that physiological levels of estradio l exert profound protective actions against ischemic injury. Further we wil l present evidence that these effects may be mediated through estrogen rece ptors that may influence the bcl-2 family of genes.