WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Sleep could enhance the target ability of immune cells inside human body to help fight off infection, a recent study said.
"This finding shows that sleep has the potential to enhance the efficiency of effector T cell responses," according to the report.
Researchers said that compared with the wake condition, sleep significantly increased the mean fluorescence intensity of T cells, a type of white blood cell that fights off infection inside human body.
"Our results demonstrate that a couple of hours of sleep loss suffice to reduce the adhesion capacity of antigen-specific T cells," according to the study published Tuesday in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The findings could help develop new therapeutic strategies with the aim of improving the target ability of T cells, especially when they are killing tumor cells.
