REVIEW ARTICLE: NEURO - ENDOCRINE - IMMUNE CROSS TALK IN EXERCISE

Abstract

Neuro - endocrine - immune cross talk, both individually as well as in coordinated fashion regulate all major physiological and psychological functioning to maintain the overall homeostasis. This highly coordinated, synchronized, feedback based, integrated multimodal signalling system is the key to survival. The highly adaptive neuro - endocrine - immune response is pertinent in synchronizing various physiological & psychological responses against stressor induced insults that challenges the resting, baseline thresholds to regain homeostasis. With the onset of exercise, a potent physiological as well as psychological stressor, the entire neuro – endocrine - immune regulation system, owing to its highly adaptive and accommodative nature, rearranges the thresholds to achieve the new, improved homeostatic set point.  The integrated, multidirectional network of neural, endocrine and immune systems is vital for the successful and effective encounter against the multifactorial, multimodal aspects of physical activities including exercise & training induced challenges. The neuro - endocrine - immune cross talk system comprises 3 major components - the neural component includes hypothalamus, limbic system, cerebral cortex, medulla, pons, with the most important coordination maintained by the hypothalamus; the endocrine component includes the 3 major axes viz., HPA (hypothalamo - pituitary - adrenal); HPT (hypothalamo - pituitary - thyroid) & HPG (hypothalamo - pituitary - gonadal) axes; the immune component mostly includes the T, B & NK cells. With the revelation of newer aspects of the multifactorial multimodal pattern of physical activities including exercise, training along with the recent developments of molecular endocrinology, the highly dynamic regulatory response to exercise induced stress needs to be constantly assessed. This review is an attempt to it.