Off the Beaten Pathogen Glucocorticoids and the Evolution of the Immune System

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Keywords

Stress, Evolution, Glucocorticoids, Immunology, Cortisol, Immune System

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to create working models of the evolution of the immune system and the effect of glueocorticoids on the human immune system. To complete this, a review of the human immune system was first undertaken to serve as a model for what the evolution section would be building towards, while providing a substrate for the discussion on the effect of glucocorticoids on that system. Innate immunity, which is limited by its allotted space in the genome, was theorized to be the result of ancient polymorphism-detection mechanisms turned inward. The adaptive immune system, which can generate countless antigen receptors through random genetic rearrangement, was thought to have emerged as the result of a chromosomal gene duplication and the horizontal transfer of what would become the RAG genes in a common ancestor of the gnathostomes. A phylogenetic study of different species immune capability accompanied these revelations. The effect of glucocorticoids, a group of stress hormones, on the human immune system was then examined. Though once thought to have a solely negative impact on this system, it was shown that limited amounts of stress augment immune function, while chronic stress can drastically reduce it, as well as contribute to some forms of dementia.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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