Sleep disruption and its effect on lymphocyte redeployment following an acute bout of exercise
Abstract
Sleep disruption and deprivation are common in contemporary society and have been linked with poor health, decreased job performance and increased life-stress. The rapid redeployment of lymphocytes between the blood and tissues is an archetypal feature of the acute stress response, but it is not known if short-term perturbations in sleep architecture affect lymphocyte redeployment. We examined the effects of a disrupted night sleep on the exercise-induced redeployment of lymphocytes and their subtypes. 10 healthy male cyclists performed 1h of cycling at a fixed power output on an indoor cycle ergometer, following a night of undisrupted sleep (US) or a night of disrupted sleep (DS). Blood was collected before, immediately after and 1h after exercise completion. Lymphocytes and their subtypes were enumerated using direct immunofluorescence assays and 4-colour flow cytometry. DS was associated with elevated concentrations of total lymphocytes and CD3(-)/CD56(+) NK-cells. Although not affecting baseline levels, DS augmented the exercise-induced redeployment of CD8(+) T-cells, with the naïve/early differentiated subtypes (KLRG1(-)/CD45RA(+)) being affected most. While the mobilisation of cytotoxic lymphocyte subsets (NK cells, CD8(+) T-cells γδ T-cells), tended to be larger in response to exercise following DS, their enhanced egress at 1h post-exercise was more marked. This occurred despite similar serum cortisol and catecholamine levels between the US and DS trials. NK-cells redeployed with exercise after DS retained their expression of perforin and Granzyme-B indicating that DS did not affect NK-cell 'arming'. Our findings indicate that short-term changes in sleep architecture may 'prime' the immune system and cause minor enhancements in lymphocyte trafficking in response to acute dynamic exercise.
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Infusion of PGD2 into the intracerebroventricular space, particularly the subarachnoid space, in rats induced substantial increases of NREM sleep.
“Infusion of PGD2 into the intracerebroventricular (ICV) (particularly the subarachnoid) space in rats induced substantial increases of NREM sleep (252, 366).”
From The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease (2019) · cites this paper as [252]
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The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease
Besedovsky, L., Lange, T., & Haack, M. (2019) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00010.2018 · Cited by 1,479 · see citing works
“, B cells, CD4 and CD8 T cells, NK cells), have been found to be either reduced by sleep (46, 67, 148, 251, 254, 480, 556, 580) or unchanged (3, 69, 103, 122, 152, 178, 224, 234, 263, 338, 418, 463, 469) when compared with acute or prolonged sleep reduction in humans.”
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- Authors
- Ingram, L. A., Simpson, R. J., Malone, E., & Florida-James, G. D.
- Affiliations
- Edinburgh Napier University (GB)
- University of Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ingram, Lesley A.
- Venue
- Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-07
- Volume
- 47
- Pages
- 100-108
- ISSN
- 0889-1591 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2001306017
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2016: 5
- FWCI
- 5.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brain Behavior and Immunity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Napier Research Repository (Edinburgh Napier University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Keywords
- sleep disruption, sleep deprivation, acute exercise, natural killer cells, CD8+ T cells, γδ T cells, lymphocyte migration, CD45RA, perforin, granzyme B, immune priming, exercise stress response, cortisol, catecholamines
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Flow Cytometry, Humans, Male, Sleep Deprivation, Exercise, Lymphocyte Subsets, Lymphocyte Count, Young Adult
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