Figure 9From: Estrogen treatment following severe burn injury reduces brain inflammation and apoptotic signalingProposed model of estrogen's anti-inflammatory and pro-survival actions in the brain following severe burn injury. In this study, we propose that following severe burn injury, acute estrogen treatment increases the activity of the anti-apoptotic Akt signaling protein and decreases the activity of pro-apoptotic factors such as caspase-3. Additionally, estrogen decreases PARP cleavage and ultimately decrease the levels of apoptosis (Pathway 1). Following injury, estrogen increases the activity of ERK through a parallel pathway, and subsequently decreases the levels of inflammatory cytokines (Pathway 2).Back to article page