This review considers biochemical aspects of inflammation. The international literature until December 2006 has been analyzed, with the principal attention paid to the most dynamic problems: enzymology of inflammation, its regulation by hormones and signal transducers, and negative feedbacks, which underlie intensive current studies on pathogenesis, diagnostics, and therapy of inflammation. Such achievements as discoveries of defensins, toll-like receptors, interconnections of inflammation and iron metabolism, the roles of oxidative stress and antioxidant defense, lipoxins, inflammatory components of "non-inflammatory" diseases, and action mechanisms of effective drugs are discussed.

The trigeminocardiac reflex (TCR) is a well-known brainstem reflex, first described in skull base and neurosurgery by the senior author in 1999, leading to reflex apnea, bradycardia, and changes of mean arterial pressure. There seem to be differences between peripheral and central stimulation of the TCR, and there is a lack of clear data about the cerebral hemodynamic changes during the TCR. However, the research of this reflex principally focused on clinical cases for peripheral and central stimulation during the last years, and on rabbits for peripheral stimulation several decades ago, so there was a need for an animal model that allows us to use the current state-of-the-art imaging methods. The new animal model protocol as introduced by the authors gives, for the first time, deep insights into the cerebral hemodynamic changes during the TCR and gives substantial evidence whether the TCR represents an oxygen-conserving reflex or not.

Many functions of mitochondrial GSH are significantly different from those of cytosolic GSH. This review considers the peculiarity of functions of mitochondrial GSH and enzymes of its metabolism, especially glutathione peroxidase 4, glutaredoxin 2, and kappa-glutathione transferase.

No abstract

During recent years the nuclear localization of glutathione has been confirmed and this fraction has been quantitatively determined. The nuclear GSH and the enzymes of its metabolism realize independent and important functions. They considerably differ from functions of hyaloplasmic and mitochondrial GSH. Glutathione interacts with regulatory pathways, involved into signal transmission into the nucleus.