Sleep deprivation in the rat: VII. Immune function.

Immune function studies were performed on splenic lymphocytes obtained from rats subjected to total or paradoxical sleep deprivation. Spleen cell counts, in vitro lymphocyte proliferation responses to mitogens, and in vitro and in vivo plaque-forming cell responses to antigens were obtained. Sleep-deprived rats were roughly equivalent to both their yoked controls and home-cage controls in all assays. The results do not support the hypothesis that sleep deprivation results in immune suppression as measured by the above-mentioned parameters.