title: Neuroimmunoendocrine circuitry of the 'brain-skin connection'.
abstract: The skin offers an ideally suited, clinically relevant model for studying the crossroads between peripheral and systemic responses to stress. A 'brain-skin connection' with local neuroimmunoendocrine circuitry underlies the pathogenesis of allergic and inflammatory skin diseases, triggered or aggravated by stress. In stressed mice, corticotropin-releasing hormone, nerve growth factor, neurotensin, substance P and mast cells are recruited hierarchically to induce neurogenic skin inflammation, which inhibits hair growth. The hair follicle is both a target and a source for immunomodulatory stress mediators, and has an equivalent of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Thus, the skin and its appendages enable the study of complex neuroimmunoendocrine responses that peripheral tissues launch upon stress exposure, as a basis for identifying new targets for therapeutic stress intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, University of Lübeck, D-23538 Lübeck, Germany. ralf.paus@uk-sh.de
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paus
authors.forename: Theoharis C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Theoharides
authors.forename: Petra Clara
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Arck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D018859:Hair Follicle / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009490:Neurosecretory Systems; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology