The brain and thymus have much in common: a functional analysis of their microenvironments

✍ Scribed by Rolf Mentlein; Marion D Kendall

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 635 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5699
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-5699(99)01557-1

✦ Synopsis

lalock and Smith 1 were met with disbelief when they showed that lymphocytes secreted factors that were normally associated with the hypothalamicpituitary axis (HPA). Despite findings that lymphocyte products (originally called lymphokines) were secreted by brain cells, in vitro studies on lymphocyte function resulted in a prevailing dogma that the immune system was completely independent of the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS, respectively). Now, with numerous studies on interrelationships between the nervous and immune systems, and our vastly increased knowledge of cytokine and growth factor actions, it is apparent that the two cannot be clearly delineated and, indeed, share features with the endocrine system. Latest examinations of thymic and brain microenvironments indicate an embryological basis for some functional similarities -a concept that can be extended to other regions such as the glia-like cells of the gut, and the supporting cells of the hypophysis and the retina. The potential of the neural crest seems to be the pivotal element that unites the systems.