[Psychoneurogenic factors and apoptosis]

Immunity is regulated by its signal molecules, interleukins, as well as by cellular contacts; however, in addition to these 'local' mechanisms there is also neuroendocrine regulation of the immune system, at the level of the organism as a whole that attunes the immunoreaction up or down. The systemic regulation is accomplished by nervous and endocrine signals that translate and transmit inputs from emotional, cognitive and associative processes in the brain. At the cellular level, neuroendocrine signals join local networks to influence biochemical processes in the cytoplasm and nuclei of the lymphocytes, macrophages and other cells of the immune system. The neuroendocrine mediators glucocorticoids and opioid peptides may trigger apoptosis as a final mechanism after binding to specific cytoplasmic viz. membrane receptors and activating the Fas molecule at the cell membrane as the apoptosis promoter. Neuroendocrine mechanisms may also influence carcinogenesis, angiogenesis and tumor metastasis.