Objective To assess the effects of sleep deprivation (SD) on the whole night polysomnography (PSG) in healthy young men. Methods The whole night PSG was recorded by using Neurofax-1518K (Nihon Kohden, Japan) system before and after 38 h of SD among 15 healthy male subjects. Results Compared with PSG before SD, post-SD PSG showed significantly shortened sleep latency (before SD: 19.7±9.3, after SD: 5.6±7.3, P<0.05), decreased stage 1 (S1) non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep [before SD: (9.2±1.9)%, after SD: (4.0±1.4)%, P<0.05], and increased stage 4 (S4) NREM sleep [before SD: (10.3±3.7)%, after SD: (26.2±4.3)%, P<0.01]. Conclusion During post-SD sleep, the proportion of S4 NREM sleep was increased as compensation in healthy male. In addition, SD was proved to affect electrophysiological brain activities in normal people.
Objective To investigate association between tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in Chinese Han population.Methods Plasma concentrations of TNF-α were measured in 61 drug-free patients who fulfilled DSM-Ⅳ criteria for OCD and 93 healthy controls.TNF-α concentrations in blood were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Two polymorphisms of TNF-α gene were investigated in the same patients and healthy controls:-308 G/A and-238 G/A.The allelic and genotypic frequencies of these polymorphisms were examined by using DNA sequencing method.Results Plasma levels of TNF-α did not differ between patients and controls (P=0.292).No significant results were observed for any of the alleles at the-308 G/A or-238 G/A polymorphism of the TNF-α gene.Finally a haplotype consisting of genotypes of these two markers was also examined.No association was observed for any haplotype (P=0.108).Conclusion No significant differences were observed between patients and controls in plasma levels of TNF-α.There is no association between the-308 G/A and-238 G/A TNF-α gene polymorphisms and OCD in our Chinese samples.However,the results need to be replicated in larger samples.
