Pergamon
A&,ances in Neuroimmunology Vol. 6, pp. 297-307, 1996
© 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0960-5428/96 832.00
PII: S0960-5428(97)00030-7
Interdependence of the endocrine and immune
systems
Mireille Dardenne*~f a n d Wilson SavinoJ;
*CNRS URA 1461, Universit6 Paris V. H6pital Necker, 161 rue de S~vres, 75015 Paris, France
+Laboratory on Thymus Research, Department of Immunology, Institute Oswaldo Cruz. Foundation Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
Keywords--Neuroimmunomodulation, hormones, cytokines, hypothalamus, anterior pituitary, thyroid, thymus, thymic
epithelium.
Summary
The cross-talk involving the endocrine and
immune systems is now largely established. These
systems actually use similar ligands and receptors to establish a physiological intra- and intersystem communication circuitry, which
apparently plays a relevant role in homeostasis
(reviewed in Blalock, 1992). Accordingly, classical hormones such as prolactin (PRL), growth
hormone (GH) and even glucocorticoids (GC)
can be produced by cells of the immune system,
whereas a variety of cytokines, originally
described as being produced by cells of the
immune system, are synthesized and released by
a variety of endocrine glands and nervous tissue.
Moreover, specific receptors for such distinct
molecular families can be detected in both the
immune and endocrine systems. © 1997 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Neuroendocrine control of the immune
system: the thymus paradigm
Neuroendocrine control of immune function
occurs at distinct levels of the immune system,
tCorresponding author.
including primary and secondary lymphoid
organs, as well as sites of effector immunological activities. One of the lymphoid organs that
has been widely studied in this regard is the
thymus gland. Within this compartment of the
immune system, bone marrow-derived T cell
precursors undergo a complex process of...