Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology (1998) 25, 134

SYMPOSIUM

Experimental Biology 1997

Symposium on Neurobiology of Thermoregulation: Role of Stress

This collection of papers originates from presentations made at a symposium during the 1997 Experimental Biology meeting. The goal of the symposium was to present the ‘state-of-the-art’ on the interactions between stress and thermoregulation. Speakers pre- sented data and concepts on thermoregulation and stress covering the gamut of animals from protozoans to mammals. The bottom line, take-home message is that animals of every major taxonomic group use altered body temperature to cope with stress. Animals may elevate their core temperature when appropriate, for example, when faced with infections. They do so by behavioural or physiological mechanisms eliciting fever and they benefit by enhanced function of the immune system. Cooling is also a response to stress exhibited by many species. This is also accomplished by behavioural and physiological mechanisms that promote heat loss. This is an appropriate response to stresses that involve toxic substances, impaired oxygen uptake and other stresses where reduced metabolic rate is beneficial.

The following papers convey the nature of the multiple inter- actions between stress and thermoregulation in a variety of species. Each study in this field seems to raise more questions than it answers. New modulators of stress response (e.g. cytokines) are frequently discovered.

Many questions remain. For example, what triggers the hypothermia in stressed animals? Where is this information processed to result in the regulated changes? How does a single- celled organism, such as a paramecium, integrate information regarding hypoxia and temperature regulation? In short, what controls the ‘ups and downs’ of temperature regulation in the stressed organism?

Steve Wood and Matt Kluger Co-Chairs