Progesterone in large amounts has immunosuppressive effect
The newest immunosuppressive drug to come on stage is progesterone, better known as the "essential hormone of pregnancy."
A team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Medicine has carried out studies showing that progesterone probably plays a critical role in preventing rejection of the fetus by the mother. The reason why this apparently had not been realized before is that the hormone was not investigated in high enough concentrations.
Pentti K. Siiteri, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and codirector of the university's reproductive endocrinology center, told the Endocrine Society meeting in San Francisco that in concentrations as high as those found in the human placenta—2µg/ gm to 10µgm—progesterone can block the rejection of cross-species skin transplants and can inhibit the mixed lymphocyte reaction. The latter is an in vitro test of the ability of T lymphocytes to
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