Castellano O, Martínez-Martí L, Gómez-Fernández L
Centro Internacional de Restauración Neurológica, CIREN, La Habana, Cuba.
Rev Neurol. 1998 Jun;26(154):1032-9.
The progress made by contemporary neurobiology opens new horizons both for study and for treatment of disorders of the nervous system. At the present time we are in the age of growth factors. These are molecules which affect survival, development and the normal functioning of cell populations.
One of the most widely studied growth factors is nervous growth factor (NGF) which is necessary for normal life of various types of neurones, including sensory nerves and nerves derived from the neural crests. Diabetic neuropathy, worldwide a major neurological disorder, is primarily characterized by involvement of the fine fibres for temperature and pain perception and also by a variety of autonomic disorders. The great dependence of sensory and sympathetic nerves on NGF, the quantity of results which show alterations in the levels of neurotrophic factors in diabetic neuropathy (DN), and the encouraging experimental and clinical results of using NGF as a new alternative to treatment with DN, were the basic reasons which led us to do this study.
We started by considering neurotrophic factors, especially NGF and its connection with DN disorders and its clinical applications, we made a summary of the main findings in this field to date.
当代神经生物学取得的进展为神经系统疾病的研究和治疗开辟了新的视野。目前我们正处于生长因子时代。这些分子影响细胞群体的存活、发育和正常功能。
研究最为广泛的生长因子之一是神经生长因子（NGF），它是各类神经元正常生命活动所必需的，包括感觉神经和源自神经嵴的神经。糖尿病性神经病变是全球主要的神经系统疾病，其主要特征是参与温度和疼痛感知的细纤维受累，以及各种自主神经功能障碍。感觉神经和交感神经对NGF的高度依赖性、大量显示糖尿病性神经病变（DN）中神经营养因子水平改变的研究结果，以及将NGF用作DN治疗新选择所取得的令人鼓舞的实验和临床结果，是促使我们开展这项研究的基本原因。
我们首先考虑了神经营养因子，特别是NGF及其与DN疾病的关联以及其临床应用，对该领域迄今为止的主要研究结果进行了总结。
