History
It was discovered by French immunologist Jacques Benveniste in the early 1970s. PAF was the first phospholipid known to have messenger functions. Jacques Benveniste made significant contributions in the role and characteristics of PAF and its importance in inflammatory response and mediation. Using lab rats and mice, Jacques Benveniste found that ionophore A23187 (a mobile ion carrier that allows the passage of Mn2+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ and has antibiotic properties against bacteria and fungi) and caused the release of PAF. These developments led to the finding that macrophages produce PAF and that macrophages play an important function in aggregation of platelets and liberation of their inflammatory and vasoactive substances.
Further studies on PAF were conducted by Constantinos A. Demopoulos in 1979. Demopoulos found that PAF plays a crucial role in heart disease and strokes. His experiment’s data found that atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) can be attributed to PAF and PAF-like lipids and a diet with lipids that have antagonistic PAF properties can inhibit the development of heart disease. During the course of his studies, he also determined the chemical structure of the compound.
Read more about this topic: Platelet-activating Factor
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)