Exploring the Antidepressant Effects of Testosterone
Date: 4.4.2012
Testosterone, the primary male sex hormone, appears to have antidepressant properties, but the exact mechanisms underlying its effects have remained unclear. Nicole Carrier and Mohamed Kabbaj, scientists at Florida State University, are actively working to elucidate these mechanisms.
They've discovered that a specific pathway in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory formation and regulation of stress responses, plays a major role in mediating testosterone's effects, according to
their new report in Biological Psychiatry.
The article is "Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 2 Signaling in the Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus Mediates the Antidepressant Effects of Testosterone" by Nicole Carrier and Mohamed Kabbaj (doi:
10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.11.028). The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 71, Issue 7 (April 1, 2012), published by Elsevier.
