Neuroimmune Interactions: From the Brain to the Immune System and Vice Versa

Because of the compartmentalization of disciplines that shaped the academic landscape of biology and biomedical sciences in the past, physiological systems have long been studied in isolation from each other. This has particularly been the case for the immune system. As a consequence of its ties with pathology and microbiology, immunology as a discipline has largely grown independently of physiology. Accordingly, it has taken a long time for immunologists to accept the concept that the immune system is not self-regulated but functions in close association with the nervous system. These associations are present at different levels of organization. At the local level, there is clear evidence for the production and use of immune factors by the central nervous system and for the production and use of neuroendocrine mediators by the immune system. Short-range interactions between immune cells and peripheral nerve endings innervating immune organs allow the immune system to recruit local neuronal elements for f...