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Just an idea - for technical research discussions we might want to start some headers for topics of ongoing research, like infectious causes, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine dysfunction, metabolism issues, etc. Different people have different areas or research that they focus on, and it can get detailed. We are all working over different aspects of a very big elephant. So much get posted under "general discussion" and I can't remember the threads or where to go back and find something someone else posted.

Lisa

LisaBee

I think that's a great idea even though I'm not able to contribute to technical discussions. I occasionally come across research that may be of interest to someone else though and am not quite sure what to do with it. As an example, I think you mentioned that you thought MS might have something to do with "lipid metabolism". Now, I don't know if lipid metabolism has anything to do with "lipid peroxidation", but I've found several things on that, so here they are

1. Brain Response to Injury and Neurodegeneration: Endogenous Neuroprotective Signaling

Lipid messengers modulate signaling cascades, contributing to development, differentiation, function (e.g., memory), protection, regeneration, and repair of neurons and overall regulation of neuronal, glial, and endothelial cell functional integrity. Oxidative stress disrupts lipid signaling and promotes lipid peroxidation and neurodegeneration. Lipid signaling at the neurovascular unit (neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, and cells of the microvasculature) is altered in early cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disease.

2. Marked gender effect on lipid peroxidation in TBI

To our knowledge, this is the first study showing gender differences in lipid peroxidation after clinical TBI. Lipid peroxidation occurs early after severe TBI in adults and is more prominent in males vs females.

3. Progesterone Protects Against Lipid Peroxidation in TBI in Rats

The gonadal hormone, progesterone, has been shown to have neuroprotective effects in injured nervous system, including the severity of postinjury cerebral edema. Progesterone's attenuation of edema is accompanied by a sparing of neurons from secondary neuronal death and with improvements in cognitive outcome.....
Because lipid membrane peroxidation is a major contributor to BBB breakdown, we hypothesized that progesterone limits this free radical-induced damage. An antioxidant action, neuroprotective in itself, would also account for progesterone's effects on the BBB, edema, and cell survival after traumatic brain injury.

4. Gestation Confers Temporary Resistance to Peroxidation in Rats

Progesterone, the gestational steroid elaborated during pregnancy, inhibited lipid peroxidation in brain mitochondria in a dose-dependent manner. The observed temporary decrease in peroxidation potential may be a special adaptation to protect membranes in the brain against oxidant stress during pregnancy.

Who knows, maybe women with MS have fewer relapses in the last trimester of pregnancy because the higher level of progesterone is inhibiting lipid peroxidation. Like I said though, I don't even know if "lipid peroxidation" has anything to do with "lipid metabolism".

May the quest continue and the elephant get out of our way.

Sharon

Sharon,

I think everyone can contribute to technical discussions and lots of people do! I just wish we had a better way of categorizing them, and even then it gets hard to figure out the best place to put them because they overlap topics. That's why I wasn't going to presume to set up categories all by myself, but put it out there as an idea to get maybe get some ideas and some consensus.

I used "metabolism" loosely, thinking about the breakdown of fats into energy, the chemical assembly of lipids into new cellular materials, and any other biochemical actions, so lipid peroxidation would count!

The papers you cited were interesting and I'll have to think about them in relation to lipid peroxidation. I'm still trying to understand the fundamentals of the hormonal influences. One of the things I've also gotten interested in is tryptophan metabolism and the interface with hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, on the first step in metabolizing tryptophan along the kynurenine pathway via an enzyme abbreviated IDO. This enzyme is apparently induced in MS. It is also induced by interferon treatment, to my understanding, which is interesting. I think there have been some posts already about tryptophan and the kynurenine pathway. I've got some ideas about that, but now need to go eat!

More soon,
Lisa