Diabetes Drug Promotes Brain Repair – But It Only Works in Females

the researchers’ delight, metformin was able to activate neural stem cells in the brain and promote cognitive recovery, as shown by mice who were able to learn new tasks and form short and long-term memories. But the data also revealed something unexpected. Metformin did not affect all the animals in equal manner. It only worked in adult females. “When we first looked at the data, we did not see the benefit of the metformin treatment,” says Morshead. “Then we noticed that adult females tended to do better than the males.” A closer look revealed that metformin selectively activated the adult female neural stem cells while having no effect on the males. This turned out to be due to the female sex hormone estradiol, which somehow enhances the stem cells’ ability to respond to metformin. Conversely, the male hormone testosterone appears to inhibit this process. When female mice had their ovaries removed and lacked the female sex hormone, the stem cells did not respond to metformin treatment. “To know that there are both age and sex dependent effects —it has such implications for treatment and therapeutics,” says Morshead. The findings come at a time when scientists are reckoning with the data bias that is skewed against women due to the predominant use of male animals in research. “The thinking was that we’re going to study males because everything you need to know is found in the male brain, and then the female brain just complicates things with hormones,” says Morshead. “It’s very misguided and troublesome for advancing neurological health.” https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/news/diabetes-drug-promotes-brain-repair-but-it-only-works-in-females-323928?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=76805145&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--u49pdeVBD98UX2uFGcRS_PWLYL2WFBshw067mympDy494dr0LdkDmmQxaT0ngb-khfnrUgB7s8qNMSaC3vXt-ZxUgHg&_hsmi=76805145