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Abstract
The contributions of gender and gonadal hormones in the cascade of events following
brain injury are largely unexplored. We measured cerebral edema following cerebral
contusion in rats under three hormonal conditions to address this issue. Normally
cycling females exhibited significantly less edema than males, and pseudopregnant
females were virtually spared from post-injury edema. Subsequent studies of ovariectomized
females, with or without hormone treatment, indicated that the reduction of cerebral
edema was associated primarily with the presence of circulating progesterone. We conclude
that progesterone has a protective effect on the brain following traumatic injury.