Immune system neural regulation

The regulation of mast-cell activity by biologically active peptides is an area of research, the rapid growth of which has been sparked in part by this intense interest in the interactions between neural, endocrine and immune systems [4, 26, 41] and in part by the recognition that activation of mast-cell secretion as a purely allergic IgE-dependent event is undoubtedly too restrictive. The involvement of the mast cell in the inflammatory response, for example, has for years been suspected to involve a number of non-immunologic, IgE-inde-pendent factors [24,42], Direct evidence for peptide involvement, however, has... 

There is evidence PENK is not processed in the same way in all tissues and the suggestion has been made that alternative processing may occur in immune system cells containing PENK, compared to processing in neurons (Riksson et al., 2001). This would open the possibility that differential processing may lead to release of enkephalin-like peptides from the immune system that would have a different spectrum of activities, at least to some extent, than those derived from neural tissues. This, in turn, would provide the opportunity for differential regulation... 

Many cytokines play a regulatory role in processes other that immunity and inflammation. Neurotrophic factors, such as NGF and BDNF, regulate growth, development and maintenance of various neural populations in the central and peripheral nervous system. EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells from erythroid precursors in the bone marrow. 

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