Testosterone-induced acceleration of recovery from facial paralysis following crush axotomy of the facial nerve in male hamsters

The spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus: Firsts in androgen-dependent neural sex differences

“…For example, testosterone protects against cell death in cultured hippocampal neurons (Pike, 2001) and injury-induced dendritic atrophy in cortical pyramidal cells (Forgie and Kolb, 2003). The application of androgens stimulates motoneuron axonal growth after peripheral nerve injury, and demonstrates a therapeutic role for gonadal steroids in axon regeneration (Kujawa et al, 1989;Jones et al, 2001). …”

Molecular Changes at the Post-Synapse and Improved Motor Function Suggest Accelerated Recovery with SARM Treatment in an Androgen-Depleted Animal Model of Nerve Injury

“…The factors that determine the regenerative ability of an injured neuron are known to include severity and proximity of the injury to the cell body [39], and their interplay with therapeutic agents can augment re-innervation. Androgens have been shown to be effective agents at enhancing nerve regeneration/innervation, though the specific nerve injuries and resultant methods of defining regeneration by androgens (e.g., function, molecular, innervation) show varied effectiveness [10,[12][13][14]40]. Likewise, the mechanism(s) by which androgen's positive effects are driven are not completely understood.…”

“…Furthermore, the beneficial effects of androgen signaling in various nerve crush models (e.g., facial and sciatic) has been described [13,[46][47][48]. The innervation results described herein are important as they pull together a strong set of molecular and functional data to highlight the potential efficacy of the SARM molecule.…”

“…Moreover, androgens have been shown to protect against motorneuron death, and display capacity to enhance nerve regeneration following injury [10]. Initial nerve regeneration studies were performed using rodent facial nerve axotomy model [11,12], where androgens exerted dramatic positive effects on the speed of functional recovery [12,13]. Brown, et al has shown that agonists to the androgen receptor speed up the recovery time after sciatic nerve crush [14].…”

Androgen regulation of axon growth and neurite extension in motoneurons

“…The first indication that androgens might regulate axonal regeneration in the facial nerve was in a series of experiments published in 1989 (Kujawa et al, 1989). In this paper, the authors reported experiments in which adult male Syrian hamsters were subjected to unilateral facial nerve crush, then treated with various regimens of an ester of testosterone-testosterone propionate (TP)-and evaluated for the length of time until recovery of facial motor function.…”