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Publisher Summary This chapter discusses long-term effects of neuroendocrine–immune interactions during early development. The immune system is modulated by the central nervous system (CNS). The chapter presents a study that demonstrated a structural link between the nervous system and the immune system by observing the innervation of lymphoid tissue by noradrenergic and peptidergic fibers. In addition to altering immune responsiveness through autonomic nervous system projections, the CNS modulates bodily defenses through neuroendocrine activity. Many hormones that are under the control of the brain are capable of potentiating or diminishing certain measures of immune performance. These measures range from alterations in tumor rejection in vivo to changes in cell-mediated or humoral immunity in vitro. In addition to its immunoregulatory, antiviral, and antiproliferative effects, interferon is capable of modulating the neuroendocrine activity. Interferon used in treating certain hormone-dependent cancers based on evidence that estradiol, progesterone, and thyroxine are suppressed in normal women after interferon administration and that the secretion of testosterone is diminished in Leydig cells in vitro after incubation with interferon. |
