Wright Rosalind J
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Chem Immunol Allergy. 2012;98:32-47. doi: 10.1159/000336496. Epub 2012 Jun 26.
Evidence linking psychological stress to allergy has grown with our increased understanding of the natural history and pathophysiology of these disorders and the neurobiology of stress vulnerability. However, the specific pathways that increase vulnerability to developing allergy and associated disorders remain to be elucidated. Autonomic nervous system functioning (autonomic balance) has been implicated in allergy for some time albeit links between autonomic balance and immune function in early development have been under studied. Starting in utero, stress may influence the programming of brain neurotransmitter systems, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system functioning, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which in turn may alter neural regulation of immune function. Epigenetic dysregulation of gene expression may be a fundamental mechanism for programming of early neural-immune processes.
随着我们对这些疾病的自然史、病理生理学以及应激易感性神经生物学的深入了解，将心理应激与过敏联系起来的证据不断增加。然而，增加患过敏及相关疾病易感性的具体途径仍有待阐明。自主神经系统功能（自主平衡）与过敏的关联已存在一段时间，尽管早期发育中自主平衡与免疫功能之间的联系研究较少。从子宫内开始，应激可能影响大脑神经递质系统的编程、交感和副交感神经系统功能以及下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺轴，进而可能改变免疫功能的神经调节。基因表达的表观遗传失调可能是早期神经免疫过程编程的基本机制。
