Pavlovian conditioning of immune functions provided early impetus to the rapidly expanding knowledge of bi-directional communication among the immune, endocrine, and central nervous systems. Since these early investigations, the phenomenology of this response has been well characterized. However the neural mechanisms and biological relevance of conditioned immunomodulation remain unclear. To th...

In the human menstrual cycle, luteal phase immunomodulation prevents the maternal immune system from attacking the half-foreign blastocyst should conception occur, thereby facilitating implantation and development. However, tolerance of the conceptus comes at the cost of increased vulnerability to infection. The compensatory behavioral prophylaxis hypothesis (Fessler, 2001; Fessler & Navarrete,...

background: plant extracts have been widely investigated for possible immunomodu-latory properties. objective: to study the immunomodulatory functions of the metha-nol extract of haussknechtia elymatica (apioideae), an herb native to south-western iran. methods: delayed type hypersensitivity (dth) skin test and measurement of an-tibody titer after immunization with sheep-rbc was performed. [3h]...