Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Toxicology Volume 2011, Article ID 405194, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2011/405194 Review Article Protective Action of Neurotrophic Factors and Estrogen against Oxidative Stress-Mediated Neurodegeneration Tadahiro Numakawa,1, 2 Tomoya Matsumoto,2, 3 Yumiko Numakawa,4 Misty Richards,1, 5 Shigeto Yamawaki,2, 3 and Hiroshi Kunugi1, 2 1 Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan 2 Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology Program (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Saitama 332-0012, Japan 3 Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Division of Frontier Medical Science, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan 4 Peptide-prima Co., Ltd., 1-25-81, Nuyamazu, Kumamoto 861-2102, Japan 5 The Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Tadahiro Numakawa,
[email protected] Received 11 January 2011; Revised 28 February 2011; Accepted 29 March 2011 Academic Editor: Laurence D. Fechter Copyright © 2011 Tadahiro Numakawa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. Low levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are important for maintenance of neuronal function, though elevated levels lead to neuronal cell death.