Fig. 9

PGRMC1 signaling. SERBP1 and PGRMC2 may serve as binding partners for PGRMC1 [48, 49]. Progesterone induces BDNF expression via PGRMC1-dependent ERK5 signaling which mediates progesterone’s cytoprotective effects in C6 glial cells and primary astrocytes [61]. The PI3K and ERK pathways have been shown to mediate BDNF neuroprotective effects in response to serum deprivation and DNA damaging agents such as camptothecin in cortical neurons [62]. Pie charts adjacent to proteins represent the protein’s relative abundance in the periphery (blue), macula (orange), and fovea (gray) based on the mass spectrometry data provided by the Skeie and Mahajan [5] study