The Rat Central Nervous System Regulation Of Immune Response Experimental Study Of Reaction Mechanisms

A growing body of experimental evidence has demonstrated that the immune system is not regulated exclusively in an autonomous fashion but there is two-way communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the immune system. The immune system can transmit its information to the CNS by signal molecules such as cytokines secreted by distincted cell populations, and ,conversely the CNS can modulate immune processes via endocrine and autonomic nervous system. The present study applied immune challenge by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and investigated the sites of CNS which were activated during the immuneresponse and analyzed the routes through which the immune information reached the CNS and the channels mediating the central modulation of the immune reactions.It was found that Fos expression was induced in the rat brain by immune activator LPS. Numerous labeled neurons were observed in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothalamus, the central nucleus of amygdala (Ce), the nucleus of solitary trace (NTS) and the Cl cell group of ventrolateral medulla. The results suggest that these nuclei are closely related to the immune response. In the NTS (C2 and A2 cell groups) 40% of the Fos neurons-were tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactive. In Cl cell group nearly all the Fos neurons were TH positive. The NTS is the principle...