We hypothesized that changes in the humoral components during SD can have important health implications. In this study, we observed statistically significant differences Z-VAD-FMK mw in the levels of all humoral components between the two groups. Although the number of subjects included in this study was small because SD studies are considered

to be limited by stress reactions in humans, we considered that the magnitude of the changes induced by SD may reflect the actual variability. We observed that the serum IgG, IgA, IgM, and C3 and C4 levels increased in individuals after 24 h of SD. Ozturk et al. (1999) determined the effects of 48 h of SD on the immune profile of male subjects and did not find statistically significant differences in the IgG and IgM levels (Ozturk et al., 1999); these findings were not consistent with those of our study. The inconsistency between the 2 findings can be attributed to the differences in the sex or race of the subjects, who may show differences www.selleckchem.com/products/epz015666.html in the sensitivities to SD. Renegar et al. (1998) determined the effects of brief SD on immunity to influenza virus in aged mice, which were

administered an immune booster 3 weeks before the challenge and sleep-deprived once before and twice after the challenge. They found that SD did not depress the level of serum influenza-specific IgG antibodies, but instead increased it compared with that in the mice with a normal sleep pattern. They concluded that short-term SD has minimal effects on pre-existing mucosal and humoral immunity in both young and senescent mice (Renegar et al., 1998). Gumustekin et al. (2004) assessed the effects of SD on wound healing in rats and measured the level of IgG in the wound area. They observed that the IgG levels in the sleep-deprived group were higher than those in the control group (Gumustekin et al., 2004); these findings are consistent with our results. In our study, the levels of all immunoglobulin and complement components were elevated but remained within the normal range, except for IgG

that slightly exceeded the normal range. Therefore, the increase was not considered to be related to pathological changes and was speculated to be nonspecific. The Reverse transcriptase mechanism underlying the elevation of the humoral components may involve the production and release of cytokines such as IL-2 and IL-6 during SD (Dinges et al., 1995, Irwin et al., 1999 and Redwine et al., 2000). This implies that sleep–wake activity plays an important role in humoral-mediated immunity, although the causes of the effects of SD remain unknown. We hypothesize that wakefulness may be necessary for the normal functioning of the immune system, while long-term sleep may be considered as a pathological process activating the immune system. Further investigations need to be conducted on the mechanisms underlying these changes to test this hypothesis. “
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