Korean J Physiol Pharmacol 2022; 26(5): 297-305
Published online September 1, 2022 https://doi.org/10.4196/kjpp.2022.26.5.297
Copyright © Korean J Physiol Pharmacol.
Ran Wei1,2, #, Xiaoye Duan1, #, and Lixin Guo1,2,*
1Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 2Peking University Fifth School of Clinical Medicine, Beijing, China
Correspondence to:Lixin Guo
E-mail: glx1218@163.com
#These authors contributed equally to this work.
Author contributions: R.W. consulted literatures and wrote the manuscript. L.G. designed the review. X.D. assisted with writing and revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The presence of artificial light enables humans to be active 24 h a day. Many people across the globe live in a social culture that encourages staying up late to meet the demands of various activities, such as work and school. Sleep deprivation (SD) is a severe health problem in modern society. Meanwhile, as with cardiometabolic disease, there was an obvious tendency that coronary heart disease (CHD) to become a global epidemic chronic disease. Specifically, SD can significantly increase the morbidity and mortality of CHD. However, the underlying mechanisms responsible for the effects of SD on CHD are multilayered and complex. Inflammatory response, lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and endothelial function all contribute to cardiovascular lesions. In this review, the effects of SD on CHD development are summarized, and SD-related pathogenesis of coronary artery lesions is discussed. In general, early assessment of SD played a vital role in preventing the harmful consequences of CHD.
Keywords: Coronary heart disease, Inflammatory response, Lipid metabolism, Oxidative stress, Sleep deprivation
Many individuals globally live in a social culture that encourages staying up late to meet the demands of various activities, such as work and school. The causes of poor sleep hygiene can include alcohol use, stimulant intake (including caffeine), and excessive Internet usage, as well as disease states, such as sleep apnea, which prevent individuals from acquiring adequate sleep duration and quality [1-8]. At the same time, shift work (e.g., night shifts) can change workers' sleep patterns, leading to emotional impulsiveness, reduced cognitive ability, diminished processing efficiency, and impaired executive function [9-15]. Further, shift workers have been shown to be at greater risk for the development of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease (CVD) [16-23].
Sleep deprivation (SD) has become a severe health problem in modern society. While adults require between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, more than a third sleep less than six [24]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines sleep deprivation as acute sleep restriction, with complete sleep deprivation defined as no sleep ≥ 24 h and partial sleep deprivation (PSD) when an individual sleeps for four hours or less. Sleep disorders include chronic SD and acute SD, both of which have complex consequences. SD can induce different biological effects, such as changes in autonomic nervous system regulation, increased oxidative stress, changes in inflammatory and coagulation responses, and accelerated atherosclerosis progression [25-31]. These mechanisms link SD with CVD and metabolic disorders [16,26,32-35].
Current epidemiological studies [34-45] have confirmed that SD is associated with increased incidence of CVDs, such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, arrhythmia, diabetes, and obesity. People who sleep less than six hours a day are at increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), compared with those who sleep between six and nine hours a day [46]. Therefore, early assessment of SD is associated with preventing harmful consequences of CVDs, such as CHD [47-51].
Short sleep duration is a key risk factor for CHD. In 2018, a cross-sectional study illustrated that the differences between heart age and chronological age were very slight in adults who slept seven hours per night. In contrast, differences significantly increased as sleep duration decreased or increased [52]. In 2018, a study involving 31,830 participants showed that people who slept less than six hours a day were significantly more likely to have non-fatal cardiovascular events than those who slept seven to eight hours [53]. According to epidemiological studies [54-57], abnormal sleep duration is a risk factor for CHD. Accordingly, several cross-sectional studies have shown that sleep duration of fewer than six hours significantly increases the risk of CHD, myocardial infarction (MI), non-fatal cardiovascular events, and cardiovascular death, as shown in Table 1 [53-56,58,59]. Compared with optimal sleep duration, SD is significantly associated with CHD, with a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and CHD observed [54-57].
Table 1 . Risk stratification and relative risk associated with sleep deprivation for coronary heart disease.
Outcome | Groups | Sample size (n) | OR | 95% CI | p-value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Angina [58] | = 6 h | 6,369 | 1.32 | 1.04–1.67 | < 0.005 |
7 h | Ref | Ref | Ref | ||
CHD [59] | < 6 h | 15,594 | 1.24 | 1.12–1.37 | 4.09E-05 |
6–9 h | Ref | Ref | Ref | ||
MI [59] | < 6 h | 14,871 | 1.21 | 1.09–1.34 | 3.81E-04 |
6–9 h | Ref | Ref | Ref |
CHD, coronary heart disease; MI, myocardial infarction; Ref, reference; OR: odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.
SD increases the contracture and necrosis of cardiomyocytes after ischemia-reperfusion injury. In 2015, one study [60] using PSD as a model confirmed that myocardial electrical activity of PSD rats was abnormal, suggesting that PSD may cause myocardial cell damage and that SD increases the risk of CHD. In 2015, a study using complete SD as a model [61] illustrated that, compared with the control group, serum creatine phosphokinase and lactate dehydrogenase in the SD group significantly increased in a time-dependent manner. This study showed that SD leads to myocardial injury, and that the degree of myocardial injury was positively correlated with SD time.
Additionally, SD show a significant impact on MI. From 2016 to 2018, Jeddi
Thus, both acute and chronic SD can cause myocardial injury, increase CHD risk, and aggravate ischemia-reperfusion injuries following myocardial events. Avoiding SD is of great significance for the prevention of CHD and post-MI treatment.
The mechanisms that are responsible for the effects of SD on CHD are multilayered and complex. Inflammatory response, lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and endothelial function all contribute to essential factors leading to cardiovascular lesions. However, these changes are interrelated and form a network of risk factors for CHD (Fig. 1).
The interaction between SD and immune disorders is bidirectional, with SD triggering an inflammatory response. In 2015, Carroll
In 2019, Said
SD has a strong effect on lipid metabolism, which leads to atherosclerosis. In 2011, Kong
In 2020, animal experiments conducted by Xing
Many studies have shown that SD can aggravate myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury by increasing energy consumption, decreasing antioxidant capacity, increasing oxygen free radical accumulation, and aggravating endoplasmic reticulum stress. Chronic circadian disruption usually activates the adaptive stress response. However, endoplasmic reticulum stress is the dominating catalyst of cell death in atherosclerosis. Figueiro
In 2005, Everson
Valvassori
Vascular homeostasis and maintenance of endothelial function demonstrated functional rhythm oscillations synchronized with the 24-h diurnal cycle. Sleep disorders related to inflammation and sympathetic activation lead to a change in blood vessel architecture, characterized by elastic fiber fracture and disorder, an increase in inflammatory cells, lipid peroxidation, inflammation, and sympathetic activation, which may induce endothelial dysfunction. Endothelial dysfunction is a critical factor in the increased risk of CVD [91-95]. In models of acute and chronic SD in healthy volunteers, Sauvet
More than 40% of protein-coding genes in human cells are controled by circadian clock gene, which showed tissue-specific circadian oscillations through clock-controlled transcription factors [99]. Many of these genes, which called CLOCK control genes (CCGs), played specific roles in regulating atherosclerosis of endothelial cells. Transcription factors brain-muscle-ARNT-like protein-2 (BMAL1) and CLOCK heterodimers combined with the promoter region of the period (PER1/2) and cryptochrome (CRY1/2) genes [100,101]. CLOCK/BMAL2 heterodimers integrated promoters of endothelial CCGs in the e-box enhancer region, such as plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and thrombomodulin (TM) [102,103]. Both PAI-1 and TM are tightly associated with endothelial activation and the development of atherosclerotic plaques. Short sleep duration may exacerbate the instability of atherosclerosis and plaque by regulating CCGs expression in endothelial cells.
NO-mediated impairment of vasodilation contributes to atherosclerotic vascular disease and acute cardiovascular events. Prospective studies by Bain
Recent studies [108] have shown that chronic SD is associated with significantly reduced circulating levels of miRNA-125a, miRNA-126, and miRNA-146a. Dysregulation of these miRNAs may lead to increased inflammatory burden and endothelial dysfunction. miRNA-26a-5p induces the apoptosis of endothelial cells in CHD by inhibiting phosphatidyl inositol-3 kinase/protein kinase B pathway [109]. Acute SD alters methylation levels in healthy individuals [110]. These epigenomic changes may be used as biomarkers for sleep loss or as therapeutic targets for sleep-related diseases [111-114].
CHD, like CVD, is a critical problem threatening human health. SD is significantly associated with increased morbidity and mortality of CHD. Mate analysis showed a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and the risk of CHD morbidity and mortality; sleep duration < 6.5 h/d was a risk factor of CHD, and increased the risk of CHD morbidity and mortality. However, its pathogenesis is complex and is the focus of current research. The experimental data reviewed in this paper show that inflammatory response, lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and endothelial function are essential factors leading to vascular lesions, as shown in Fig. 1. In general, ensuring adequate sleep time to prevent CHD and MI after treatment is significant. Specifically, early intervention and treatment of SD can reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among night shift workers.
None.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82170848).
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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