Jd. Fang et al., EFFECTS OF INTERLEUKIN-1-BETA ON SLEEP ARE MEDIATED BY THE TYPE-I RECEPTOR, American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, 43(3), 1998, pp. 655-660
Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) is a well characterized sleep regulator
y substance. To study receptor mechanisms for the sleep-promoting effe
cts of IL-1 beta, sleep patterns were determined in control and IL-1 t
ype I receptor knockout (IL-1RI KO) mice with a B6x129 background afte
r intraperitoneal injections of saline or murine recombinant IL-1 beta
. The IL-1RI KO mice had slightly but significantly less sleep during
the dark period compared with the controls. IL-1 beta dose dependently
increased non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS) and suppressed rapid e
ye movement sleep (REMS) in the controls. The IL-1RI KO mice did not r
espond to IL-1 beta. In contrast, the IL-1RI KO mice increased NREMS a
nd decreased REMS after administration of tumor necrosis factor-alpha
(TNF-alpha), another well characterized sleep-promoting substance. The
se results 1) provide further evidence that IL-1 beta is involved in s
leep regulation, 2) indicate that the effects of IL-1 beta on sleep ar
e mediated by the type I receptor, and 3) suggest that TNF-alpha is ca
pable of inducing sleep without the involvement of IL-1.