The role of the immunoendocrine interaction via the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in autoimmune disease Emphasis on the obese strain chicken model.
The key to the molecular basis of the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease (AID) certainly lies in the identification of genes coding for the altered immune response and those responsible for the susceptibility of the target organ to the autoimmune attack. The elucidation of nonessential modulatory factors is, however, also of great importance, because it is via these routes that an effective AID therapy is practical at the present time. Hormones in general, and those affecting the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in particular, are among the best candidates for more rational new therapeutic approaches. Studies of immune-endocrine communication in animal models with spontaneously occurring organ-specific or systemic autoimmune diseases are ideal for this kind of investigation, since immunologic studies commencing prior to onset of the AID in question can be performed.
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Georg Wick, Yan-Hua Hu, and Johann Gruber are at the Institute for General and Experimental Pathology, University of Innsbruck, Medical School, Austria; Institute for Biomedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
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