TY - JOUR
T1 - A high soy diet enhances neurotropin receptor and Bcl-XL gene expression in the brains of ovariectomized female rats
AU - Lovekamp-Swan, Tara
AU - Glendenning, Michele L.
AU - Schreihofer, Derek A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine grant 1R01AT001882 to D.A. Schreihofer. Portions of this data have been presented previously at The Endocrine Society’s 87th Annual Meeting, San Diego, 2005.
PY - 2007/7/23
Y1 - 2007/7/23
N2 - Estrogen is a powerful neuroprotective agent with the ability to induce trophic and antiapoptotic genes. However, concerns about negative overall health consequences of estrogen replacement after menopause have led to the adoption of other strategies to obtain estrogen's benefits in the brain, including the use of selective estrogen receptor modulators, high soy diets, or isoflavone supplements. This study sought to determine the ability of a high soy diet to induce neuroprotective gene expression in the female rat brain and compare the actions of soy with estrogen. Adult ovariectomized female rats were treated with 3 days of high dose estrogen or 2 weeks of a soy-free diet, a high soy diet, or chronic low dose estrogen. Different brain regions were microdissected and subjected to real time RT-PCR for neuroprotective genes previously shown to be estrogen-regulated. The principle findings are that a high soy diet led to the widespread increase in the mRNA for neurotropin receptors TrkA and p75-NTR, and the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bcl-XL. Immunohistochemistry confirmed increases in both TrkA and Bcl-XL. Chronic low dose estrogen mimicked some of these effects, but acute high dose estrogen did not. The effects of a high soy diet were particularly evident in the parietal cortex and hippocampus, two regions protected by estrogen in animal models of neurological disease and injury. These results suggest that a high soy diet may provide beneficial effects to the brain similar to low dose chronic estrogen treatment such as that used for postmenopausal hormone replacement.
AB - Estrogen is a powerful neuroprotective agent with the ability to induce trophic and antiapoptotic genes. However, concerns about negative overall health consequences of estrogen replacement after menopause have led to the adoption of other strategies to obtain estrogen's benefits in the brain, including the use of selective estrogen receptor modulators, high soy diets, or isoflavone supplements. This study sought to determine the ability of a high soy diet to induce neuroprotective gene expression in the female rat brain and compare the actions of soy with estrogen. Adult ovariectomized female rats were treated with 3 days of high dose estrogen or 2 weeks of a soy-free diet, a high soy diet, or chronic low dose estrogen. Different brain regions were microdissected and subjected to real time RT-PCR for neuroprotective genes previously shown to be estrogen-regulated. The principle findings are that a high soy diet led to the widespread increase in the mRNA for neurotropin receptors TrkA and p75-NTR, and the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bcl-XL. Immunohistochemistry confirmed increases in both TrkA and Bcl-XL. Chronic low dose estrogen mimicked some of these effects, but acute high dose estrogen did not. The effects of a high soy diet were particularly evident in the parietal cortex and hippocampus, two regions protected by estrogen in animal models of neurological disease and injury. These results suggest that a high soy diet may provide beneficial effects to the brain similar to low dose chronic estrogen treatment such as that used for postmenopausal hormone replacement.
KW - Bcl
KW - Diet
KW - Isoflavone
KW - Neurotropin
KW - Soy
KW - mRNA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34447502223&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.05.026
DO - 10.1016/j.brainres.2007.05.026
M3 - Article
C2 - 17582385
AN - SCOPUS:34447502223
SN - 0006-8993
VL - 1159
SP - 54
EP - 66
JO - Brain Research
JF - Brain Research
IS - 1
ER -