What is meant by stress? Stress refers to pathogens, damaged cells and toxic compounds. It is this that causes disease, including mental illness.

The concept of cellular “fight-or-flight” reaction to stress

MICHAEL S. GOLIGORSKY

Departments of Medicine, Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8152

Goligorsky, Michael S. The concept of cellular “fight-or-flight” reac- tion to stress. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 280: F551–F561, 2001.—As animals respond to environmental stress with a set of default reactions described as the “fight-or-flight” response, so do epithelial and endothe- lial cells when they are confronting stressors in their microenvironment. This review will summarize a growing body of data suggesting the existence of a set of stereotypical cellular reactions to stress, provide some examples of diseases that are characterized by excessive flight reactions, describe the cellular mechanisms whereby the fight-or-flight reaction is accomplished, as well as cellular mechanisms triggering either fight or flight. It is proposed that cell-matrix adhesion is a sensi- tive indicator of the severity of stress. This indicator is interfaced with several default programs for cellular survival or death, thus dictating the fate of the cell. Some diagnostic and therapeutic applications of the concept, presently used and potentially useful, are outlined. The essen- tial feature of this concept is its ability to categorize cellular events in terms of either type of default reaction, predict the details of each, and potentially exploit them clinically.

cell adhesion; migration; stress; preconditioning; endothelium; epithe- lium…..

What is meant by stress? Stress refers to pathogens, damaged cells and toxic compounds.

Inflammatory responses and inflammation-associated diseases in organs

Linlin Chen,^#1Huidan Deng,^#1Hengmin Cui,^1,2Jing Fang,^1,2Zhicai Zuo,^1,2Junliang Deng,^1,2Yinglun Li,^1,2Xun Wang,^1,2 and  Ling Zhao^1,2 Oncotarget. 2018 Jan 23; 9(6): 7204–7218. Published online 2017 Dec 14. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.23208

Inflammation is a biological response of the immune system that can be triggered by a variety of factors, including pathogens, damaged cells and toxic compounds. These factors may induce acute and/or chronic inflammatory responses in the heart, pancreas, liver, kidney, lung, brain, intestinal tract and reproductive system, potentially leading to tissue damage or disease. Both infectious and non-infectious agents and cell damage activate inflammatory cells and trigger inflammatory signaling pathways, most commonly the NF-κB, MAPK, and JAK-STAT pathways. Here, we review inflammatory responses within organs, focusing on the etiology of inflammation, inflammatory response mechanisms, resolution of inflammation, and organ-specific inflammatory responses. Keywords: inflammation, inflammatory signaling pathways, chemokines, cytokines, organ diseases

Inflammation has been widely implicated in both depression and neurodegeneration.

Severe depression linked with inflammation in the brain https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288715

Clinical depression is associated with a 30% increase of inflammation in the brain, according to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

What the new study set out to investigate was whether inflammation is a driver of clinical depression independent of other physical illness. 

Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s (CAMH) Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, used positron emission tomography (PET) to scan the brains of 20 patients with depression and 20 healthy control participants. 

In particular, the team closely measured the activation of microglia – immune cells that play a key role in the brain’s inflammatory response 

The PET scans showed significant inflammation in the brains of the people with depression, and the inflammation was most severe among the participants with the most severe depression. The brains of people who were experiencing clinical depression exhibited an inflammatory increase of 30%.