Sleep On It?

It's always nice when some of your 'old' research has some new relevance. Decades ago, I (working with some postgraduate students) established that male and female mice differed in their immune responses to challenge with an antigen (foreign protein). Their varied levels of antibody production were then linked to sex steroid (androgen and oestrogen) secretions by the mice. New data from the French National Institute of Health and Medicine (Lyon) have now found that sex steroids are implicated in variations in antibody production after Covid19 vaccination (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/mar/13/less-than-6-hours-sleep-reduces-vaccination-immune-response). The French study noted that people who slept for less than 6 hours per night had a reduced antibody response to Covid19 vaccinations. The reduction was equivalent to the decline in response normally seen 2 months after receiving a jab. This decline was most marked in younger men. The experimenters linked this deficit to changes in sex hormone output. Tiny steps.