Neuro-Endocrine-Immune Interactions in Maintaining the Integrity of the Body

It is difficult to say today who was the first to notice that the body’s systems cooperate with each other, and that this is the basis for maintaining homeostasis and quickly responding to factors that threaten it, both of external and internal origin. The pioneers of this approach are mentioned in the introduction to the chapter. Great philosophers and physicians, Plato/Aristocles of Athens (BCE) Hippocrates of KosHippocrates Plato (BCE) and Galen/Claudius Galenus (the beginning of CE), spoke about the integrative role of the body's systems in maintaining health. In today's interpretation of their concepts, all of them pointed to the central role of the interactions of the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. The study of neuro-endocrine-immune interactions has a long history in anatomical and physiological context. The research focused on finding answers to the questions: where are the contact points of these systems in tissues? what are the mechanisms and effects of their cooperation? how do they influence the course of infectious, cancer, autoimmuneAutoimmune, neurodegenerative diseases, and finally, are they related to agingAging processes? Discussion of all these issues would require a separate review. In this chapter, attention will be directed to the basic mechanisms of cooperation and exchange of information between nervous, endocrine and immune systems and their role in key processes for the survival of the body, such as the development of immune cells and organs without which any fight against diseases would not be possible, shaping the functions of immune cells to perform the surveillance function, development of tolerance to the body’s own normal cells, and participation in the reproductive success.