Editorial: Neuroendocrine-Immunological Interactions in Health and Disease

Abstract

Historically, scientists have delimited the immune, endocrine, and neural systems to study physiology and disease (Figure 1). Although questions relating to whether there is a strict boundary between these systems do persist today, we do not believe in that. Biology does not seem to “respect” the established limits between these systems. Indeed, since Claude Bernard’s early studies in physiology, we know that the different organs and systems must communicate in an integrative way to maintain homeostasis. During recent decades, we have investigated these systems in an integrative way, since both the tools and the information to perform these studies are now available. In this Research Topic, we gathered diverse studies that increase our knowledge about the complex interactions among the immune, endocrine, and neural systems in both homeostasis and disease, and the potential therapeutic or disrupting agents of these circuits.