Effects of sleep restriction during pregnancy on lipids and glucose homeostasis of female offspring submitted to ovariectomy.

Sleep shortening during pregnancy may alter the mother's environment, affecting the offspring. Thus, the present study evaluated the metabolic profile of female offspring from sleep-restricted rats during the last week of pregnancy. Pregnant Wistar rats were distributed into two groups: control (C) and sleep restriction (SR).

Chronic Sleep Restriction Impairs the Antitumor Immune Response in Mice.

Objectives: Sleep regulates immune function reciprocally and can affect the parameters that are directly involved in the immune response. Sleep deprivation is considered to be a stress-causing factor and is associated with impaired immune activity. It causes increased glucocorticoid concentrations by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; this can lead to a series of disorders that are associated with the prolonged or increased secretion of these hormones.

Sleep restriction during pregnancy: hypertension and renal abnormalities in young offspring rats.

Study Objectives: Because the maternal environment can affect several physiological functions of the newborn, the aim of the present study was to examine the impact of sleep restriction during pregnancy on renal morphology and function in young offspring.

Design: Female 3-month-old Wistar rats were divided in 2 experimental groups: C (control) and SR (sleep restriction between the 14th and 20th day of pregnancy). Pregnancy was confirmed by vaginal smear.

Increased disease activity is associated with altered sleep architecture in an experimental model of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Study Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate sleep patterns during the course of the disease in (NZB/NZW)F1 mice, an experimental model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Design: Female mice were implanted with electrodes for chronic recording of sleep-wake cycles during the entire experimental phase (9, 19, and 29 weeks of age). The disease course was also assessed.

Brief and long maternal separations decrease corticosterone secretion in a lupus-prone strain: dissociation from disease-related parameters.

Neonatal manipulations are known to alter the activity of the immune system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This study was performed in order to examine whether brief and long maternal separations (BMS and LMS, respectively) interfere with the onset and development of murine lupus in NZB/NZWF1 females, and to determine whether the pattern of corticosterone (CORT) secretion throughout life is associated to the expression of the disease. Maternal separation was performed daily during postnatal days 1-14, lasting 15 min in the BMS group and 3h in the LMS group.

[Immune outcomes of sleep disorders: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as a modulatory factor].

Objective: To review the literature on the interaction between sleep and the immune system.

Method: A search on Web of Science and Pubmed database including the keywords sleep, sleep deprivation, stress, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, immune system, and autoimmune diseases.

Results: On Web of Science, 588 publications were retrieved; 61 references, more significant and closer to our objective, were used, including original articles and review papers.

Effect of sleep deprivation on the corticosterone secretion in an experimental model of autoimmune disease.

Objective: Sleep disturbances have been observed in a number of chronic inflammatory conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus. Previous results from our laboratory showed that when NZB/NZWF1 mice, an experimental model of lupus, are submitted to sleep deprivation (SD), they exhibit an earlier onset of the disease. Sleep disturbances have far-reaching effects on the endocrine and immune system, changes that may be linked to disease manifestation.

Effects of sleep deprivation on the development of autoimmune disease in an experimental model of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Sleep is hypothesized to play a restorative role on immune system. In addition, disturbed sleep is thought to impair host defense mechanisms. Chronic sleep deprivation is a common occurrence in modern society and has been observed in a number of chronic inflammatory conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Effects of early handling on basal and stress-induced sleep parameters in rats.

Exposure of humans and animals to stressful events early in life leads to significant and often permanent behavioural, neuroendocrine and central alterations. Early handling consists of removing the litter from the nest for 15 min/day, from post-natal days 2 to 14 and results in lowered ACTH and corticosterone stress response and reduced anxiety-like and fear behaviours. Stress-induced sleep alterations usually consists of increased sleep time, known as sleep rebound.