Physiological and pathophysiological role of somatostatin receptors in the human thymus

textabstractDuring the first half of the previous century, the evidence that the endocrine and nervoussystems integrate and regnlate different functions in the human body coincided with thenew findings supporting the concept that immune mechanisms may be influenced by thesesystems as well. In the past decades, many studies were carried out to understand themolecular and cellular basis of interactions between the immune system andneuroendocrine activities.TIle interactions between the inunune, endocrine and nervous systems are very complex.Although the accumulated information is enormous, many reciprocal interactions arepoorly understood, several mechanisms are still difficult to interpret, and in some cases theresults are even contradictory. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of researchers and manylaboratories are nowadays focused on understanding how hormones, neuropeptides,neurotransmitters and specific products of inunWle cells exert their regulatory functionsand act in integrating such different systems.