SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Progesterone Shows Promise to Treat Brain Injuries
from USA Today
Marc Baskett is not exactly the same guy he was before suffering serious injuries in a traffic accident in 2004. ... But he can walk. And talk. "My brain is back all the way," says Baskett, 25. His speech gives no clue that he had lingered in a coma as deep as you can get and still live to tell about it.
Today, the Commerce, Ga., resident works for his parents' cleaning business and aspires to be a model. He and his parents credit his vastly shortened hospital stay--he spent seven weeks in the hospital, nearly a year less than his doctors had predicted--and recovery to progesterone, best known as a female hormone that plays a key role in maintaining pregnancy.
A small study of progesterone in the treatment of traumatic brain-injured patients, including Baskett, was so promising the National Institutes of Health has financed a larger, nationwide study that is to start enrolling patients this week. Scientists are still trying to unravel how progesterone protects the brain, but laboratory and animal studies suggest that it is critical for normal development of brain cells and reduces swelling from trauma.
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