Myocardial ischemia alcohol

To summarize, based on the available data, pharmacological inhibition of ASMase might be an opportunity to prevent apoptosis, in particular in the liver, without influencing T-cell apoptosis. In fact, hepatocyte apoptosis is an important element in a number of liver diseases, ranging from cholestatic and alcoholic liver disease to autoimmune and viral hepatitis (Eichhorst, 2005). Furthermore, a role of ASMase-produced ceramide in neuronal and myocardial apoptosis has been implicated from studies in models of rat cerebral and rabbit heart ischemia, respectively (Yu et al., 2000 Argaud et al., 2004) the criticism to the latter two studies is, however, that their conclusion rely on the use of the xanthogenate D609, which inhibits ASMase in an indirect way but certainly is not specific for that enzyme. 

The fact that P(3HB-co-4HB) and P(4HB) are also polymers with potential therapeutic applications have been pointed out in a recent review [7]. The 4HB units are pharmacologically active compounds, which have been used in the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome [227, 228] and narcolepsy [229]. Other potential applications include the treatment of patients with chronic schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, atypical psychoses, chronic brain syndrome, neurosis, drug addiction and withdrawal, Parkinson s disease and other neuropharmacological illnesses, hypertension, ischemia, circulatory collapse, radiation exposure, cancer, and myocardial infarction [230]. 

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