Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, University of Bari, Policlinico, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 70124 Bari, Italy.
Endocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets. 2020;20(4):546-557. doi: 10.2174/1871530319666191115144105.
According to the views of psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology, many interactions exist between nervous, endocrine and immune system the purpose of which is to achieve adaptive measures restoring an internal equilibrium (homeostasis) following stress conditions. The center where these interactions converge is the hypothalamus. This is a center of the autonomic nervous system that controls the visceral systems, including the immune system, through both the nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms. The nervous mechanisms are based on nervous circuits that bidirectionally connect hypothalamic neurons and neurons of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system; the neuroendocrine mechanisms are based on the release by neurosecretory hypothalamic neurons of hormones that target the endocrine cells and on the feedback effects of the hormones secreted by these endocrine cells on the same hypothalamic neurons. Moreover, the hypothalamus is an important subcortical center of the limbic system that controls through nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms the areas of the cerebral cortex where the psychic functions controlling mood, emotions, anxiety and instinctive behaviors take place. Accordingly, various studies conducted in the last decades have indicated that hypothalamic diseases may be associated with immune and/or psychic disorders.
Various researches have reported that the hypothalamus is controlled by the cerebellum through a feedback nervous circuit, namely the hypothalamocerebellar circuit, which bi-directionally connects regions of the hypothalamus, including the immunoregulatory ones, and related regions of the cerebellum. An objective of the present review was to analyze the anatomical bases of the nervous and neuroendocrine mechanisms for the control of the immune system and, in particular, of the interaction between hypothalamus and cerebellum to achieve the immunoregulatory function.
Since the hypothalamus represents the link through which the immune functions may influence the psychic functions and vice versa, the cerebellum, controlling several regions of the hypothalamus, could be considered as a primary player in the regulation of the multiple functional interactions postulated by psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology.
根据心理神经内分泌免疫学的观点，神经系统、内分泌系统和免疫系统之间存在着许多相互作用，其目的是在应激条件下采取适应措施，恢复内部平衡（内稳态）。这些相互作用汇聚的中心是下丘脑。下丘脑是自主神经系统的中枢，通过神经和神经内分泌机制控制包括免疫系统在内的内脏系统。神经机制基于双向连接下丘脑神经元和交感神经及副交感神经系统神经元的神经回路；神经内分泌机制基于神经分泌下丘脑神经元释放靶向内分泌细胞的激素，以及这些内分泌细胞分泌的激素对同一下丘脑神经元的反馈作用。此外，下丘脑是边缘系统的一个重要皮质下中枢，通过神经和神经内分泌机制控制大脑皮层的区域，这些区域发生控制情绪、情感、焦虑和本能行为的心理功能。因此，过去几十年的各种研究表明，下丘脑疾病可能与免疫和/或心理障碍有关。
多项研究报告称，小脑通过一个反馈神经回路即下丘脑小脑回路控制下丘脑，该回路双向连接包括免疫调节在内的下丘脑区域和小脑的相关区域。本综述的目的是分析控制免疫系统的神经和神经内分泌机制的解剖学基础，特别是下丘脑和小脑之间的相互作用，以实现免疫调节功能。
由于下丘脑是免疫功能可能影响心理功能，反之亦然的联系，因此，控制下丘脑多个区域的小脑可以被认为是心理神经内分泌免疫学提出的多种功能相互作用的主要调节者。
