Are Inflammatory and Coagulation Biomarkers Related to Sleep Characteristics in Mid-Life Women?: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Sleep Study

• Published in: Sleep (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2010-12, Vol.33 (12), p.1649-1655
• Main Authors: MATTHEWS, Karen A, HUIYONG ZHENG, KRAVITZ, Howard M, SOWERS, Maryfran, BROMBERGER, Joyce T, BUYSSE, Daniel J, OWENS, Jane F, SANDERS, Mark, HALL, Martica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers - blood; Biomarkers of Sleep Characteristics in Mid-Life Women; Blood Coagulation Factors - metabolism; C-Reactive Protein - metabolism; Cohort Studies; Ethnic Groups; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Middle Aged; Polysomnography; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Sleep Wake Disorders - blood; Sleep Wake Disorders - diagnosis; Sleep Wake Disorders - epidemiology; United States - epidemiology
• ISSN: 0161-8105; 1550-9109
• DOI: 10.1093/sleep/33.12.1649

Inflammation and pro-coagulation biomarkers may be a link between sleep characteristics and risk for cardiometabolic disorders. We tested the hypothesis that worse sleep characteristics would be associated with C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, factor VIIc, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 in a multi-ethnic subsample of mid-life women enrolled in the Study of Women's Health across the Nation. Cross-sectional. African American, Chinese, and Caucasian women (N=340) participated in 3 days of in-home polysomnographic (PSG) monitoring and had measures of inflammation and coagulation. Regression analyses revealed that each of the biomarkers were associated with indicators of sleep disordered breathing after adjusting for age, duration between sleep study and blood draw, site, menopausal status, ethnicity, residualized body mass index, smoking status, and medications that affect sleep or biomarkers. Among African American women, those who had higher levels of CRP had shorter PSG-sleep duration and those who had higher levels of fibrinogen had less efficient sleep in multivariate models. These results suggest that inflammation and pro-coagulation processes may be an important pathway connecting sleep disordered breathing and cardiometabolic disorders in women of these ethnic groups and that inflammation may be a particularly important pathway in African Americans.