Estrogens Attenuate and Corticosterone Exacerbates Excitotoxicity, Oxidative Injury, and Amyloid β‐Peptide Toxicity in Hippocampal Neurons

Steroid hormones, particularly estrogens and glucocorticoids, may play roles in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, but their mechanisms of action are not known. We report that estrogens protect cultured hippocampal neurons against glutamate toxicity, glucose deprivation, FeSO4 toxicity, and amyloid beta-peptide (A beta) toxicity. The toxicity of each insult was significantly attenuated in cultures pretreated for 2 h with 100 nM-10...