Colony‐stimulating factors in rapid eye movement sleep and non‐rapid eye movement sleep regulation

Abstract

Although several cytokines are known to be somnogenic, no study has been conducted to examine whether colony-stimulating factors (CSF) affect sleep. Therefore, we studied the effects of granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) and macrophage CSF (M-CSF) on sleep in rats and their possible mechanism of action. At the dose of 10 pmol, GM-CSF or M-CSF significantly increased both non-rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or REM sleep only when infused intracerebroventricularly during the dark period. When injected locally in the hypothalamus, GM-CSF and M-CSF increased nitric oxide (NO) production. Thus, NOergic neural signals in the hypothalamus may take part in the somnogenic action of CSF.

Sleep Deprivation in Humans, Immunodepression and Glutamine Supplementation

“…This may be indicative of transient immunodepression due to one night's sleep deprivation. It has been proposed that GM-CSF has a direct effect on sleep regulation through the CNS (Kimura et al, 1999). Since GM-CSF and its receptors are expressed in the brain it was suggested that GM-CSF may affect various functions of the central nervous system (CNS).…”