FRIDAY, Sept. 20, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- A pregnancy hormone called estriol appears to show promise as a treatment for early-stage multiple sclerosis (MS).
In a study done at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), researchers say a pill form of estriol decreased the size and number of brain lesions and improved protective responses in people with relapsing remitting MS.
Previous studies found similar results in pregnant women and animals with early-stage MS. Estriol is a weak form of estrogen made by the fetal placental unit. Only pregnant women have appreciable amounts of estriol.
Estriol is widely used in Europe and Asia to treat symptoms of menopause. Because it doesn't prevent osteoporosis, estriol isn't approved in the United States for hormone replacement therapy.
The UCLA Phase 1 clinical trial included six women with relapsing remitting MS and six women with secondary progressive MS. All six with relapsing remitting MS completed the trial, along with 4 women in the other group.
The researchers found a significant decrease in the number and size of inflammatory brain lesions, an increase in protective immune response and improvement in cognitive test scores after the women with relapsing remitting MS were treated with estriol.
When the women were taken off estriol, their brain lesions increased to pre-treatment levels. Those lesions declined when the women were put back on estriol, according to the study, which is published in the October edition of Annals of Neurology.
The women with secondary progressive MS showed no significant improvement when taking estriol.
"Based on these results, a larger, placebo controlled trial of estriol is warranted in women with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. If larger studies confirm the benefits of estriol treatment, further studies for longer periods of time will be needed to determine whether estriol can decrease relapse rates and disabling symptoms," says principal investigator Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, associate professor of neurology at UCLA.
MS is a chronic, disabling disease that affects 1 in 10,000 people. Symptoms, which range from numbness in the limbs to paralysis or blindness, typically appear between ages 20 and 30.
More information
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has a complete guide to MS.
