title: Histamine-interleukin-prostaglandin pathway: a hypothesis for a biochemical cycle regulating sleep and wakefulness.
abstract: The probable existence of a biochemical cycle, involving histamine, interleukins and prostaglandins for regulating sleep and wakefulness in higher vertebrates is proposed in this paper. For convenience, it is given an acronym, H-I-P cycle. The proposed biochemical cycle consists of 13 essential steps, with four regulatory points. How this cycle differs from the previously described biochemical models for sleep and wakefulness, such as Jouvet's monaminergic cycle (5) and the multiple sleep factor model of Krueger (9,10) is also mentioned. The regional distribution of mast cells in the mammalian brain, the fluctuation of their numbers under different light regimen and a progressive decrease of their numbers with aging suggest that they may be the candidate 'black box' for the anatomical seat of sleep.
authors.affiliation: Osaka BioScience Institute, Japan.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kantha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015232:Dinoprostone / Q000502:physiology; D006632:Histamine / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007378:Interleukins / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D015230:Prostaglandin D2 / Q000502:physiology; D011453:Prostaglandins / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007378:Interleukins; D011453:Prostaglandins; D006632:Histamine; D015232:Dinoprostone; D015230:Prostaglandin D2