Immune system inflammatory changes

Prenatal and early postnatal diazepam exposure was shown to induce gliosis and perivascular cuffing in the brains of 45- to 64-day-old rats suggesting inflammatory processes and direct cell damage. These changes were possibly a consequence of effects of diazepam on the immune system or blood-brain barrier (ref. 67). 

Some authors claim that liposaccharides can depress the content of TNF-a and increase the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase, thus—via mediators—they can affect the immune system (Can et al. 2003). It has been demonstrated that the NF-p transcription factor, (highly sensitive to the redox potential in its environment), which regulates synthesis of many mediators—cytokines, associated with inflammatory condition and the phenomenon of adhesion of cells— becomes deregulated in old age. Defense functions in such cases (and primarily in arthritis and arthritis-related conditions) are said to be performed by antioxidants (including a-lipoic acid), which can modulate the activity of monocytes and inhibit changes caused by deregulating of the transcription factor NF-kB under the influence of redox conditions in elderly people (Lee and Hughes 2002). 

In recent years, researchers have shown interest in the role of the immune system in depression (72, 73), and the cytokine theory of depression proposes that alterations in the immune response result in behavioral, cognitive, and neuroendocrine changes in depression. Cytokines can be proinflam-matory or anti-inflammatory, and it has been postulated that depression may be caused by, or at least related to, excessive... 

When a foreign substance comes in contact with the human body, the system initiates its host defense m hanisms involving what may be called the inflammatory response. For instance, the presence of foreign materials causes acute inflammatory changes, evokes an immune reaction, or is associated with infiltrate of cells predominantly of the mononuclear phagocyte after an acute inflammatory reaction. It is the macrophage that is the most important cell in the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) which plays a major role in all these kinds of inflammation. 

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