INTERLEUKIN-1 RECEPTORS IN THE BRAIN AND ENDOCRINE TISSUES

Immune activation is often accompanied by profound alterations in neur ological and endocrine function, such as fever, increased somnolence, decreased appetite, activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal a xis, and suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal and hypotha lamic-pituitary-thyroid axes. These well-recognized systemic responses to injury and infection have been attributed to circulating pro-infla mmatory cytokines, the best characterized of which is interleukin 1 (I L-1). Here Emmett Cunningham and Errol De Souza discuss the mechanisms by which blood-borne IL-1 might affect such changes in the nervous an d neuroendocrine systems.