It's all so murky. Things change as PD progresses, and it's often the balance between things that matters in PD.
"We conclude that the cytokines from activated microglia in the SN and putamen may be initially neuroprotective, but may later become neurotoxic during the progress of PD."
http://www.springerlink.com/content/nh185v3276230515/
Rick, I don't get your steroid connection yet. I'll need to study it more.
http://www.e-emm.org/article/article...064-review.pdf