The effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha on hypothalamopituitary -ovarian axis

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

There is an accumulating evidence of a close linkage between neuroendocrine and immune system. Studies are designed to investigate the effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) on hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis. First, we demonstrated that TNF-alpha stimulated interleukin-6 (IL-6) production by hypothalamic cells. Further we have shown that IL-6 stimulated GnRH release from hypothalamic cessl(1), suggesting that cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-alpha are involved in the feedback mechanism of estrus cycle. We also demonstrated that TNF-alpha stimulated IL-6 production by anterior pituitary cells and our results also suggested that folliculo-stellate (FS ) cell is one of the candidates of IL-6-producing cells(2). In addition, we observed that TNF-alpha stimulated the release of arachidonate from anterior pituitary cells and arachidonate metabolites such as 5-lipoxygenase products are involved in the process of prolactin release(3).