Revision of the present conception of the chemical mediators of inflammation

Los objetivos primordiales del presente trabajo son los siguientes: a) Intentar una visión ecléctica lo más clara posible de los mediadores químicos de la Inflamación a partir del profuso caudal bibliográfico que se dispone, tratando de resaltar las convergencias y de conciliar las diferencias existentes sobre diversos aspectos de este complejísimo fenómeno; b) Proponer una nueva clasificación de los mediadores químicos que tenga un carácter lo más “secuencial” posible, o sea, tratando de seguir un cierto orden de aparición, según ocurre en los tejidos inflamados desde el momento de la injuria. c) Proponer una hipótesis a partir de la relación catecolaminas-histamina.The main objectives of this paper are the following: a) To attempt as clear an eclectic vision as possible of the chemical mediators of inflammation, from the broad bibliographical material available, and reconceive differences on various aspects of such a complex phenomenon. b) To propose a new classification of the chemical mediators having a character as “sequential” as possible, them, trying to follow a certain order of appearance as it happens in the inflamed tissues from the moment of the injury (lesion) c) To propose a hypothesis starting from, the catecholamines-histamine relationship (ratio).Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Threatened and extinct amphibians and reptiles in Italian natural history collections are useful conservation tools

Natural history museums are irreplaceable tools to study and preserve the biological diversity around the globe and among the primary actors in the recognition of species and the logical repositories for their type specimens. In this paper we surveyed the consistency of the preserved specimens of amphibians and reptiles housed in the major Italian scientific collections, and verified the presence of threatened species according to the IUCN Red List, includ-ing the Extinct (EX), Extinct in the Wild (EW), Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), and Vulnerable (VU) categories. Altogether, we analyzed 39 Italian zoological collections. We confirmed the presence of one extinct reptile (Chioninia coctei) and five extinct or extinct in the wild amphibian species (Atelopus longirostris, Nectophrynoides asperginis, Pseudophilautus leucorhinus, P. nasutus, and P. variabilis). Seven CR amphibians, fourteen CR reptile species and the extinct skink C. coctei are shared by more than one institution. Museums which host the highest number of threatened and extinct amphibian species are respectively Turin (17 CR and 1 EX), Florence (13 CR and 1 EX), and Trento (15 CR and 1 EW), while for reptiles the richest museums are those from Genoa (15 CR and 1 EX), Florence (11 CR and 1 EX), and Pisa (7 CR). Finally, we discussed the utility of natural history museums and the strategies to follow for the implementation of their functionality. © Firenze University Press