“…In view of the fact that DBI is released from nerve terminals and its fragments can be found in liquor and peripheral blood [33], such peptides may represent novel neuroendocrine mediators linking the central nervous system to the immune system. Moreover, inasmuch as DBI or a protein with an identical amino acid sequence, previously named acyl-CoA binding protein, is also widely distributed in many peripheral organs such as gut and endocrine cells of the pancreatic islets [5,34], liver, kidney [35], adrenals [36], adipose tissue, heart, muscles, and mammary gland [37] of different species, and in circulating mononuclear cells [38], in red blood cells [39], and even in neoplastic cell lines [40], it cannot be excluded that high concentrations of DBI and/or of its processing products may occur locally as the result of leakage from damaged cells during tissue injury. DBI-derived peptides may thus also add to the multiple agents constituting the local microenvironment in inflamed tissues.…”