Hormesis refers to adaptive responses of biological systems to moderate environmental or self-imposed challenges through which the system improves its functionality and/or tolerance to more severe challenges. The past two decades have witnessed an expanding recognition of the concept of hormesis, elucidation of its evolutionary foundations, and underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms, and practical applications to improve quality of life. To better inform future basic and applied research, we organized and re-evaluated recent hormesis-related findings with the intent of incorporating new knowledge of biological mechanisms, and providing fundamental insights into the biological, biomedical and risk assessment implications of hormesis. As the literature on hormesis is expanding rapidly into new areas of basic and applied research, it is important to provide refined conceptualization of hormesis to aid in designing and interpreting future studies. Here, we establish a working compartmentalization of hormesis into ten categories that provide an integrated understanding of the biological meaning and applications of hormesis.

兴奋效应是指生物系统对缓和环境或自我施加的挑战的适应性反应，系统通过这种反应提高其功能和/或对更严峻挑战的耐受性。在过去的二十年里，人们对毒物兴奋作用的概念有了更广泛的认识，对其进化基础、潜在的细胞和分子机制以及改善生活质量的实际应用进行了阐明。为了更好地为未来的基础和应用研究提供信息，我们组织并重新评估了最近与兴奋效应相关的发现，目的是整合生物学机制的新知识，并提供对兴奋效应的生物学、生物医学和风险评估影响的基本见解。随着有关毒物兴奋作用的文献迅速扩展到基础研究和应用研究的新领域，重要的是提供毒物兴奋作用的精细概念化，以帮助设计和解释未来的研究。在这里，我们将兴奋作用的工作划分为十个类别，提供了对兴奋作用的生物学意义和应用的综合理解。