cscboulder11 Posted March 10, 2013 Posted March 10, 2013 I recently started a physiology course and had a question that someone here might be able to answer. Reflex loops were covered recently, and it was said that pyrogens are what causes fever by resetting the normal body temperature in the hypothalamus to a higher one, in turn causing fever. What's responsible for resetting the hypothalamus to the correct, lower body temperature? (I'm taking the course through Coursera, which is why I can't just ask the instructor directly)
systemet Posted March 10, 2013 Posted March 10, 2013 My assumption would be a combination of : (1) diminution of the initiating stimulus, I.e. over time as the infection reduces you have less immune activation and therefore less IL-1, TNFalpha, etc., and less release of bacterial pyrogens, e.g. LPS. (2) desensitization : over time the same stimulus produces less of a response, which could be as simple as receptor downregulation.
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