Chronobiology of Endocrine-Immune Interactions

Accumulating evidence suggests the existence of modulatory interactions and bidirectional communications between the neuroendocrine and immune systems [2, 34, 60, 108]. Accordingly, it is postulated that alterations in either of these systems may be functionally felt in the other. Thus, psychosocial and neuroendocrine influences affect proneness to many diseases with a major immunologic component including infections, cancer, and autoimmune disorders [39, 59, 93, 94, 110]. Conversely, immunologic cell-derived hormones and soluble factors may elicit, in the course of an immune response, endocrine and brain functional changes [12,18].