Sleep and active renin levels--interaction with age, gender, growth hormone and cortisol.
OBJECTIVE
In young normal male subjects, plasma renin activity (PRA) shows large oscillations with a distinct association to the cyclic occurrence of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) periods. Until now the sleep-related course of active renin levels is unknown. Furthermore, there are no data on the effects of age and gender on nocturnal renin and the interaction between these variables, sleep, growth hormone (GH) and cortisol.


METHODS
We investigated simultaneously sleep EEG (23:00-07:00 h) and the plasma concentrations (23:00-07:00 h) of active renin (in 10-min intervals) and of GH and cortisol (in 20-min intervals) in 47 healthy volunteers (24 women and 23 men) aged 19-69 years.


RESULTS
In the total sample, significant positive correlations were found between renin concentrations and NREM sleep and the sleep efficiency index, whereas a significant negative correlation exists to wakefulness. Renin shows also a positive correlation to GH levels which is restricted to the younger subjects (<40 years) during NREM sleep. No association exists between renin and cortisol. The averaged nocturnal mean renin levels were significantly lower in female than in male subjects, and in subjects older than 40 years than in younger subjects. Oscillations of active renin levels were found with increases during NREM periods and decreases during REM periods.


CONCLUSIONS
In all, nocturnal averaged renin levels are lower in women than in men, decrease during ageing and correlate positively with GH, whereas the interaction between renin and sleep is independent from age and gender.
Schüssler
Petra
P
Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany. schuessler @ mpipsykl.mpg.de
Yassouridis
Alexander
A
Uhr
Manfred
M
Kluge
Michael
M
Bleninger
Philipp
P
Holsboer
Florian
F
Steiger
Axel
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010507:Periodicity; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
D013006:Growth Hormone; D012083:Renin; D006854:Hydrocortisone