SLEEP DISORDERED BREATHING IN AGING ZUCKER RATS

晚年睡眠和睡眠质量的变化对以下方面有影响： 生活质量、功能水平和保持能力 独立的 开始和维持睡眠的抱怨， 白天嗜睡是美国最常见的健康问题之一， 老人 睡眠呼吸障碍（SDB）在美国很普遍， 老年人，伴有严重且经常危及生命的 并发症 虽然SDB的临床特征已被很好地 所描述的，事件的顺序和机制负责 气道阻力的初始增加或随后的年龄相关 上呼吸道向完全阻塞（阻塞性）的发展 睡眠呼吸暂停，OSA）仍然未知。 尽管有人猜测 轻度SDB（上气道阻力综合征， 打鼾）和阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停综合征（OSA）代表了两个极端， 同样的紊乱，中枢和外周机制， 或增强沿着这一连续体的运动还没有完全理解。 由于SDB在人类中的缓慢进展，以及 大多数临床研究不得不回到横截面设计， 在老龄化人口中，与SDB相关的促成因素有 很难描述 毫无疑问，一个合适的动物 该模型与人类模型具有许多相同的特征， 康体发展局在决定 衰老过程中SDB演变的机制 人口 The Zucker（Z.）大鼠，一种常染色体遗传模型， 肥胖症，提供了许多优势，作为研究进化的模型， SDB：肥胖动物不是天生肥胖，但发展增加 体重是年龄的函数;相对较短的寿命（18 月）是纳入纵向研究的理想选择， 与年龄相关的功能障碍的特定机制; Z.老鼠非常 大量的研究证实了这一点 自1961年首次描述以来，该模型的尺寸非常理想， 进行大量的扰动，并研究 从次要因素;肥胖Z.老鼠表现出许多相同的 功能性、中枢性和睡眠状态异常， 有SDB的人;和瘦的同窝仔可用作年龄- 匹配的控制。 有待检验的主要假设是， 在衰老的肥胖Z中自然进化。大鼠和这种模型将 证明在检测与 SDB的发展。 只有在这些贡献机制充分发挥作用之后， 可以理解的是，可以考虑有效的早期干预。

Changes in sleep and sleep quality in late life have implications for quality of life, level of functioning, and ability to remain independent. Complaints in initiating and maintaining sleep and of daytime drowsiness are among the most common health problems in the elderly. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is prevalent in the elderly and associated with severe and often life-threatening complications. Although the clinical features of SDB have been well described, the sequence of events and mechanisms responsible for initial increases in airway resistance or subsequent age associated devolution of the upper airway toward full occlusion (obstructive sleep apnea, OSA) remain unknown. Although it has been speculated that mild forms of SDB (upper airway resistance syndrome with snoring) and OSA represent the two extremes of a continuum of the same disorder, central and peripheral mechanisms that contribute to or enhance movement along this continuum are not fully understood. Because of the slow progression of SDB in humans, and the fact that most clinical studies have had to revert to a cross-sectional design, contributing factors associated with SDB in an aging population have proved difficult to delineate. Unquestionably, a suitable animal model that shares many of the same characteristics as noted in human SDB would be of tremendous value in determining consequential mechanisms responsible for the evolution of SDB in the aging population. The Zucker (Z.) Rat, an autosomal genetic model of obesity, offers many advantages as a model for studying the evolution of SDB: obese animals are not born obese, but develop the increased body mass as a function of age; a relatively short life-span (18 months) is ideal for inclusion of longitudinal studies to correlate specific mechanisms with age related dysfunction; the Z. Rat is very well defined as attested by the vast number of studies employing this model since its original description in 1961; the size is ideal to perform numerous perturbations and to study influences originating from secondary factors; obese Z. Rats present many of the same functional, central, and sleep state abnormalities as observed in humans with SDB; and lean litter-mates are available to serve as age- matched controls. The major hypothesis to be tested is that SDB naturally evolves in aging obese Z. rats and such this model will prove most advantageous in detecting mechanisms associated with the evolution of SDB. Only after these contributing mechanisms are fully understood can effective early interventions be contemplated.