Department of Physiology of Visceral Function and Body Fluid, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4, Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan.
Clin Exp Nephrol. 2021 Sep;25(9):915-924. doi: 10.1007/s10157-021-02062-3. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in maintaining homeostasis in organisms. Recent studies have shown that it also controls inflammation by directly altering the function of the immune system. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) is one of the neural circuits operating through the vagus nerve. Acetylcholine released from the terminal of the vagus nerve, which is a parasympathetic nerve, acts on the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of macrophages and reduces inflammation in the body. Previous animal studies demonstrated that vagus nerve stimulation reduced renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. Furthermore, restraint stress and pulsed ultrasound had similar protective effects against kidney injury, which were mainly thought to be mediated by the CAP. Using optogenetics, which can stimulate specific nerves, it was also revealed that activation of the CAP by restraint stress was mediated by C1 neurons in the medulla oblongata. Nevertheless, there still remain many unclear points regarding the role of the nervous and immune systems in controlling renal diseases, and further research is needed.
自主神经系统在维持生物体的内稳态方面起着重要作用。最近的研究表明，它还通过直接改变免疫系统的功能来控制炎症。胆碱能抗炎途径 (CAP) 是通过迷走神经起作用的神经回路之一。迷走神经末梢释放的乙酰胆碱是一种副交感神经，作用于巨噬细胞上的α7 烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体，减少体内炎症。先前的动物研究表明，迷走神经刺激可减轻肾缺血再灌注损伤。此外，束缚应激和脉冲超声对肾损伤具有相似的保护作用，主要被认为是通过 CAP 介导的。使用可以刺激特定神经的光遗传学，还揭示了束缚应激通过 CAP 的激活是由延髓中的 C1 神经元介导的。然而，神经和免疫系统在控制肾脏疾病中的作用仍有许多不清楚的地方，需要进一步研究。
