The trophic cocktail made by adrenal chromaffin cells.

The beneficial effect of chromaffin cell grafts to the striatum in patients with Morbus Parkinson and in animal models of the disease may be due to liberated growth factors rather than to the relatively small amounts of dopamine released. This overview summarizes the current knowledge concerning synthesis, storage, and release of growth factors and neuropeptides with growth factor-like effects by chromaffin cells. Peptides of interest include several well-established neurotrophic factors, neuropeptides, and cytokines known to stimulate neurotrophic factor levels in a number of neural lesion paradigms, such as fibroblast growth factor-2, transforming growth factors-beta, interleukins, enkephalins, somatostatin, neurotensin, VIP, and biological activities resembling ciliary neurotrophic factor. Fibroblast growth factor-2 has been most extensively studied, and its ameliorative effects on pathological chemical and morphological parameters of the Parkinsonian brain will also be addressed.