RGD Reference Report - Interleukin-18 promotes sleep in rabbits and rats. - Rat Genome Database

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Interleukin-18 promotes sleep in rabbits and rats.

Authors: Kubota, T  Fang, J  Brown, RA  Krueger, JM 
Citation: Kubota T, etal., Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2001 Sep;281(3):R828-38.
RGD ID: 8554500
Pubmed: PMID:11506998   (View Abstract at PubMed)

Interleukin (IL)-1beta is involved in physiological sleep regulation. IL-18 is a member of the IL-1 family, and its signal-transduction mechanism is similar to that of IL-1. Therefore, we hypothesized that IL-18 might also be involved in sleep regulation. Three doses of IL-18 (10, 100, and 500 ng) were injected intracerebroventricularly (icv) into rabbits at the onset of the dark period. The two higher doses of IL-18 markedly increased non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS), accompanied by increases in brain temperature (Tbr). These effects were lost after the heat inactivation of IL-18. The 500 ng of IL-18 injection during the light period also increased NREMS and Tbr. Similar results were obtained after icv injection of 100 ng of IL-18 into rats. Furthermore, intraperitoneal injection of 30 microg/kg of IL-18 slightly, but significantly, increased NREMS, whereas it significantly decreased electroencephalogram slow-wave activity in rats. Intraperitoneal IL-18 failed to induce fever. An anti-human IL-18 antibody had little effect on spontaneous sleep in rabbits, although the anti-IL-18 antibody significantly attenuated muramyl dipeptide-induced sleep. These data suggest that IL-18 is involved in mechanisms of sleep responses to infection.



Gene Ontology Annotations    

Biological Process

Objects Annotated

Genes (Rattus norvegicus)
Il18  (interleukin 18)


Additional Information