Pharmacy Study Material

Free pharmacy material Prostaglandins INTRODUCTION Prostaglandins     were first discovered and isolated from human semen in the 1930s by Ulf von Euler of Sweden. Thinking they had come from the prostate gland, he named them prostaglandins. It has since been determined that they exist and are synthesised in virtually every cell of the body. Prostaglandins are like hormones in that they act as chemical messengers, but they do not move to other sites—they work right within the cells where they are synthesised. The name ‘prostaglandin’ derives from the prostate gland. When prostaglandin was first isolated from seminal fluid in 1935 by the Swedish physiologist Ulf von Euler, and independently by M.W. Goldblatt, it was believed to be part of the prostatic secretions (in actuality, prostaglandins are produced by the seminal vesicles); it was later shown that many other tissues secrete prostaglandins for various functions. Prostaglandins are unsaturated carboxyl...

Free pharmacy material Insulin and Oral Hypoglycaemic Agents INTRODUCTION The pancreas contains at least four different types of endocrine cells, including A (alpha, glucagon-producing), B (beta, insulin-producing), D (delta, somatostatin-producing), and F (PP, pancreatic polypeptide-producing). Of these, the B cells are predominant. The most common pancreatic disease requiring pharmacologic therapy is diabetes mellitus, a deficiency of insulin production or effect. Type-I diabetes occurs when the pancreas cannot produce insulin, a hormone essential for moving glucose from the blood into cells. It is an autoimmune disorder, in which the body makes antibodies that attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was called juvenile diabetes. People with type-I diabetes must supply insulin by injection. Type-II diabetes is the most common disorder. In this, either the body does not produce enough insulin or the ce...