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Gateway reflexes are neural circuits that establish the gateway of immune cells to regulate tissue specific
Keiichiroh Akabane1, Kaoru Murakami1,2, Masaaki Murakami1,2,3,4
1Molecular Psychoimmunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Introduction:
Tissue-specific inflammatory diseases are regulated by several mechanisms. The gateway reflex and IL-6 amplifier are two mechanisms involved in diseases that depend on the inflammatory cytokine IL-6. The gateway reflex activates specific neural pathways that cause autoreactive CD4+ T cells to pass through gateways in blood vessels toward specific tissues in tissue-specific inflammatory diseases. These gateways are mediated by the IL-6 amplifier, which describes enhanced NF-κB activation in nonimmune cells including endothelial cells at specific sites. In total, we have reported six gateway reflexes defined by their triggering stimulus: gravity, pain, electric stimulation, stress, light, and joint inflammation.
Areas Covered:
This review summarizes the gateway reflex and IL-6 amplifier for the development of tissue-specific inflammatory diseases.
Expert Opinion:
We expect that the IL-6 amplifier and gateway reflex will lead to novel therapeutic and diagnostic methods for inflammatory diseases, particularly tissue-specific ones.
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