Stress influences of different duration and intensity induce production of a lymphocyte-activating factor (LAF) by murine peritoneal macrophages, and enhancement of Interleukin 1 (IL-1) level in the murine blood, inducing no alterations in the thymocyte reaction to concomitant action of the IL-1 beta which correlates with changes in the value of humoral immune response. The data obtained are in agreement with differently aimed stress-induced alterations in the activity of the membrane neutral sphingomyelinase: the key enzyme of the sphingomyelin cascade, in the membrane P2 fraction of the brain cortex. The IL-1 seems to participate in physiological mechanisms of realisation of stress reactions on the levels of its production and biological action on target cells as well as of the sphingomyelin pathway of its signal transduction in nerve tissue.