Effects of prolonged wakefulness on c-fos and AP1 activity in young and old rats
Effects of prolonged wakefulness on c-fos and AP1 activity in young and old rats
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DOI：
10.1016/s0169-328x(01)00045-6
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发表时间：
2001-04-18
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Shiromani, PJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Basheer, R;Shiromani, PJ
Recent studies have demonstrated that the immediate-early gene c-fos is induced in neuronal populations responsible for specific sleep-wake states. The induction of this gene may be functionally relevant to sleep homeostasis since without the gene mice (c-fos null) take longer to fall asleep and have a selective reduction in slow-wave sleep. This suggests that a build-up of c-fos during wakefulness increases the drive to sleep and lack of c-fos is associated with reduced sleep. Sleep also has an effect on c-Fos serving to eliminate the protein rapidly. Waxing and waning of transcription factors such as c-Fos may influence slow, oscillating events such as sleep and wakefulness. To further examine what role c-Fos may play in regulating sleep, the present study examined the effects of prolonged wakefulness on c-Fos and AP-1 activity in young (3.5 months old) and old (21.5 months old) Sprague-Dawley rats. Previously we found that old rats slept less even after prolonged wakefulness, and other investigators have found that aging is also associated with a decline in c-Fos. In the present study. we reasoned that prolonged wakefulness would also fail to increase c-Fos in old versus young rats. The baseline levels of c-Fos and AP-1 activity were not different between young and old rats. However. in response to 6 or 12 h of prolonged wakefulness, old rats demonstrated significantly less c-Fos and AP-1 activity compared to young rats. These findings suggest that in old rats the mechanism responsible for c-Fos induction in response to wakefulness is deficient. Such a decline at the molecular level could contribute to the decline in sleep that typically occurs with age. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Ail rights reserved.
