News
Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber
News
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard
News
‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative
News
Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter
News
LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard
According to Medical School Associate Professor of Dermatology Richard D. Granstein and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the possibility exists that events as microscopic as the body's response to foreign substances are influenced by mental well-being.
An article describing the team's research, which appeared in yesterday's issue of Nature, presents data which shows that a chemical, known as CGRP, present in nerves and in increased levels during stress or anxiety in the skin's upper layer regulates the activity of neighboring immune cells.
"It's a way by which the nervous system may talk to the immune system," Granstein said. "For understanding the immune system, it's very important."
Scientists at the School of Public Health had previously found that CGRP inhibited the immune response of macrophages, the body's scavengers which destroy foreign substances. CGRP has also been suggested as a possible therapeutic agent to regulate immune responses in the skin.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.