Publication Date:
1987-10-23
Description:
There is now evidence that the immune system, during times of infectious challenge, can stimulate the secretion of glucocorticoids, the adrenal steroids that mediate important aspects of the response to stress. Specifically, secretion of interleukin-1 (IL-1), a monocyte lymphokine secreted after infection, appears at least in part responsible for this effect. Glucocorticoids are secreted in response to a neuroendocrine cascade involving, first, the brain, then the pituitary, and finally the adrenal gland. In this report, human IL-1 is shown to activate the adrenocortical axis at the level of the brain, stimulating the release of the controlling hormone corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) from the hypothalamus. Infusion of IL-1 induced a significant secretion of CRF into the circulation exiting the hypothalamus, whereas immunoneutralization of CRF blocked the stimulatory effect of IL-1 on glucocorticoid secretion. IL-1 appeared to have no acute direct stimulatory effects on the pituitary or adrenal components of this system. Furthermore, IL-1 did not cause a nonspecific release of other hypothalamic hormones. Thus, the lymphokine acts in a specific manner to activate the adrenocortical axis at the level of the brain; this effect appears to be unrelated to the known pyrogenic effects of IL-1 within the hypothalamus.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sapolsky, R -- Rivier, C -- Yamamoto, G -- Plotsky, P -- Vale, W -- AA06420/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/ -- AM26741/AM/NIADDK NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1987 Oct 23;238(4826):522-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, CA 94305.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2821621" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adrenal Cortex/physiology
;
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone/secretion
;
Animals
;
Cell Line
;
Corticosterone/secretion
;
Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone/*secretion
;
Hypothalamus/*secretion
;
Immunologic Techniques
;
Interleukin-1/*physiology
;
Male
;
Pituitary Gland, Anterior/secretion
;
Pituitary Neoplasms/secretion
;
Rats
;
Rats, Inbred Strains
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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