Sleep and Inflammatory Resolution Pathway

Summary

Goal of this project is to investigate whether increases in inflammation that result from common patterns of restricting sleep on week nights and catching up on sleep over the weekend are caused by disruption in the newly discovered inflammatory resolution pathways. These pathways are crucial in the active termination of the inflammatory response, and their disruption may contribute to ongoing unresolved inflammation, which has been observed not only during periods of sleep restriction, but also after recovery sleep has been obtained. If the hypothesis is true, it is possible that increasing the body's natural production of endogenous, inflammatory resolution mediators may provide a non-behavioral strategy to limit the inflammatory consequences in those undergoing periods of sleep restriction with intermittent recovery sleep.

Timeline

Start

2018-06-06

Primary completion

2025-12-30

Completion

2025-12-30

Publications

• Sun H, Dang R, Li P, Xiao W, Scott-Sutherland J, Sassower KC, Westover MB, Felsenstein D, Thomas RJ, Haack M, Mullington JM. Facility-Measured Sleep Electroencephalographic Microstructures in Long COVID. Sleep. 2026 Apr 22:zsag090. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsag090. Online ahead of print.
• Engert LC, Dang R, Chatterton B, Daniel S, Mullington JM, Haack M. The Effect of Low-Dose Acetylsalicylic Acid on Cellular Immune Responses to Experimental Sleep Restriction in Healthy Humans. Neuroimmunomodulation. 2026;33(1):125-137. doi: 10.1159/000551037. Epub 2026 Feb 13.
• Engert LC, Ledderose C, Biniamin C, Birriel P, Buraks O, Chatterton B, Dang R, Daniel S, Eske A, Reed T, Tang A, Bertisch SM, Mullington JM, Junger WG, Haack M. Effects of low-dose acetylsalicylic acid on the inflammatory response to experimental sleep restriction in healthy humans. Brain Behav Immun. 2024 Oct;121:142-154. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2024.07.023. Epub 2024 Jul 21.

Drugs

Indications