Department of Psychiatry, The Rochester Center for Mind-Body Research, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Box PSYCH-BPSM, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
Immunol Allergy Clin North Am. 2011 Feb;31(1):95-108. doi: 10.1016/j.iac.2010.09.005.
Age-related changes in immune function leave older adults at risk for a host of inflammatory diseases. Immune-mediated inflammatory processes are regulated by neuroendocrine hormones, including glucocorticoids, dehydroepiandrosterone, and the catecholamines, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. This regulation, however, becomes impaired in older adults in light of age-related changes in endocrine function. Chronic stress shows similarly harmful effects on neuroendocrine and immune function and may, therefore, combine with age to further increase disease risk in older adults. This article highlights evidence for the impact of age and stress on neuroendocrine regulation of inflammatory processes that may substantially increase risk for inflammatory disease at older ages.
年龄相关的免疫功能变化使老年人容易患上一系列炎症性疾病。神经内分泌激素（包括糖皮质激素、脱氢表雄酮和儿茶酚胺，如肾上腺素和去甲肾上腺素）调节免疫介导的炎症过程。然而，随着内分泌功能的年龄相关变化，这种调节在老年人中受到损害。慢性应激对神经内分泌和免疫功能也有类似的有害影响，因此可能与年龄因素相结合，进一步增加老年人的疾病风险。本文强调了年龄和应激对炎症过程的神经内分泌调节的影响的证据，这可能会大大增加老年人患炎症性疾病的风险。
