Data on urban and rural diabetes prevalence ratios show a significantly lower presence of diabetes in rural areas. Several bioactive compounds of plant origin are known to exert anti-diabetic properties. Interestingly, most of them naturally occur in different plants present in mountainous areas and are linked to traditions of herbal use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS), in which the cytokine network may be deranged, leading to an altered immunoregulation. Tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-alpha, a cytokine with pleiotropic neuroimmune effects, has specific receptors on human lymphocytes, as well as on other cell types, even in the CNS. The aim of the present study was to assay TNF-alpha binding on peripheral blood T cells from PD patients, as compared with healthy subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neural Transm Suppl
January 1992
The use of blood platelets as a nerve terminal model for serotonin is well documented. However, it is clear that the use of platelets as a model can be justified only for those parameters where it may be shown that blood platelets and neural cells share almost identical features. The excellent similarity between the serotonin transport mechanisms in platelets and in nerve terminals, and the existence of various receptors for biogenic amines, peptides and substances with neuronal activity on platelet membrane offer a really unique opportunity to utilize blood platelets as a system for drug evaluation.
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