ABSTRACT

The accumulation of sleep regulatory substances (SRS) in cerebrospinal fluid during prolonged wakefulness provides very strong support for the hypothesis that sleep is regulated, in part, by humoral agents. Many substances can affect sleep, although only a handful of humoral agents are strongly implicated in sleep regulation. The list includes tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), growth hormone releasing hormone, prostaglandin D2 and adenosine for nonrapid eye movement sleep, and vasoactive intestinal peptide and prolactin for rapid eye movement sleep. The chapter focuses on IL-1β. IL-1β is a polypeptide with a molecular weight of 17 kD that has autocrine, exocrine, and endocrine roles. An important aspect in the determination of gene expression related to sleep regulation is to monitor the changes of messenger ribonucleic acids levels of the specific SRS gene of interest. The techniques for quantification of mRNA levels include Northern blotting, dot and slot blotting, solution hybridization, RNase protection, nuclear run-on transcription, and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.