Estrogen improves lung function.

• Position: Premature Birth

Estrogen may be a new postnatal therapy to improve lung function and other outcomes in preterm infants, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, have found. "Ironically, a hormone that has received great attention as a potential means to optimize the health of older women may be a beneficial treatment for humans during the earliest stages of life," relates Philip Shaul, professor of pediatrics.

The study investigated causes and treatments for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a devastating primary complication of premature birth that develops in the lungs following ventilation and oxygen support.

Sufficient production of nitric oxide in fetal and newborn lungs is necessary for the lungs to develop and function properly. During the latter part of pregnancy, the placenta produces large amounts of estrogen that enter the fetal circulation. Another spike of estrogen occurs during labor. In prior studies of cultured cells, the investigators found that estrogen activates genes in lung cells by encoding nitric oxide syntheses--enzymes that produce nitric oxide. That research suggests treatment with the hormone may achieve the same results in the intact lung. Premature infants--nearly 50,000 are born in the U.S. each year---miss out on this exposure to estrogen in the womb and, as a...