Sleep and antibody response to hepatitis B vaccination.

Study Objectives: Experimental evidence links poor sleep with susceptibility to infectious illness; however, it remains to be determined if naturally occurring sleep is associated with immune responses known to play a role in protection against infection. The aim of this study was to determine whether sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and sleep quality, assessed in the natural environment, predict magnitude of antibody responses to a novel antigen among community volunteers in midlife.

Design: Observational.

Negative affective responses to a speech task predict changes in interleukin (IL)-6.

Laboratory studies show that individuals differ appreciably in the magnitude of their inflammatory responses to acute psychological stress. These individual differences are poorly understood, yet may contribute to variation in stress-associated disease vulnerability. The present study examined the possibility that affective responses to acute stress contribute to these differences.

Gender differences in stimulated cytokine production following acute psychological stress.

Emerging evidence suggests that acute psychological stress modulates inflammatory competence; however, not all findings are consistent. Gender is one factor that may impact magnitude of response. To explore this possibility, we examined the effects of acute mental stress on lipopolysaccharide-induced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha among a relatively healthy sample of midlife men (n=28) and women (n=34).