Figure 2.

MIF in PD. Preclinical studies on MIF in PD, which show the results obtained in vitro and in vivo studies and the different pathway of how MIF could exert its protective function to inhibit neuronal loss. MIF mediates a neuroprotective effect via suppressing inflammatory responses, reducing the number of microglia and macrophages and displaying tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive (TH-IR) neurons’ enhanced fiber outgrowth [49]. MIF also inhibits apoptosis and neuronal loss, detoxifying catecholamine-derived [15] and also promoting BDNF expression [50], increasing MMP and decreasing cleaved-PARP [47].