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Content archived on 2024-06-16

Identifying the factors leading to pregnancy-induced remission in a model of Multiple Sclerosis

Objective

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a major pathology that is typically associated with central nervous system inflammations, demyelination and axonal loss. MS has a major economical impact on health care systems since it has currently no available cure. This pathology presents a clear sexual difference since women are representing over the two thirds of MS patients.

However the clinical outcome of women with MS is better than the one for men. It has been suggested that sexual steroid hormones play a role in this potential protection since women with remitting-relapsing form of MS undergo remission during the last trimester of pregnancy. This effect is more beneficial clinically than any effect induced by current pharmaceutical treatments. Studying remission induced by pregnancy is extremely relevant to understand the mechanisms involved in MS remission and for its potential to identify factors that may be developed as new therapeutic compounds.

The major goal of this project is to investigate through in vivo and gene array strategies, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effect of pregnancy in an experimentally induced murine model of MS. The first objective is to determine the specific parameters (i.e. inflammation, demyelination, or axonal loss) that are specifically modulated in vivo during pregnancy-induced remission. The second objective is to identify, through gene array analysis, factors that are specifically regulated during remission and that are involved in this mechanism.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2002-MOBILITY-12
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

IRG - Marie Curie actions-International re-integration grants

Coordinator

ISTITUTO DI RICERCHE BIOMEDICHE ANTOINE MARXER RBM S.P.A.
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data