Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy: an estrogen-related disease.
In the recent years new avenues have been opened in the treatment of ICP, a complex disorder that seems to represent a maladaptation of some young and otherwise healthy women, to estrogens or other sex hormones. New drugs have been shown capable of providing promising therapeutic effects either on pruritus, the main distressing symptoms of cholestasis (such as epomediol, silymarin) or both on pruritus and some biochemical abnormalities (such as UDCA). Future clinical and experimental studies should provide better insight into the pathogenesis of cholestasis, the mechanisms of bile formation and secretion, and the metabolism of estrogens and other sex hormones and their alteration relationship to cholestasis, a disorder that is highly prevalent in humans.
Reyes
H
H
Department of Medicine, University of Chile School of Medicine Hospital del Salvador, Santiago.
Simon
F R
FR
D000818:Animals; D002780:Cholestasis, Intrahepatic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004967:Estrogens / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D051381:Rats
D004967:Estrogens