Gut Inflammation Induced by Finasteride Withdrawal: Therapeutic Effect of Allopregnanolone in Adult Male Rats
Diviccaro S, Giatti S, Cioffi L, Falvo E, Herian M, Caruso D, Melcangi RC
Biomolecules2022
Summary (paraphrased)
Rat study of 20-day finasteride treatment followed by one-month withdrawal, measuring steroids, neurotransmitters, cytokines, and gut-permeability markers in the colon. Both treatment and withdrawal lowered allopregnanolone, and post-withdrawal this coincided with rises in IL-1β, TNF-α and serotonin and a drop in dopamine — changes that allopregnanolone treatment partly reversed. The authors point to allopregnanolone's links with GABA-A receptors and its precursor pregnenolone as key to its action.
Why it’s in the corpus
Ties neurosteroid depletion to gut inflammation and neurotransmitter shifts in a PFS model, and directly tests allopregnanolone as a candidate therapy — a central thread for post-drug neurosteroid hypotheses.
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