| Budget Amount *help |
¥20,670,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,770,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥4,940,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,140,000)
Fiscal Year 2009: ¥5,460,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,260,000)
Fiscal Year 2008: ¥10,270,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,370,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Sleep/wakefulness is a physiological phenomenon which observed only in the whole body. Thus, it is essential to study using whole animal. Optogenetics is a recently developed technique to control the activity of neurons by expressing light activated proteins, such as channelrhodopsin2(ChR2) or halorhodopsin(Halo). This technique allows us to control the activity of orexin-producing neurons(orexin neurons) using light in vivo and in vitro. First, we confirmed the function of CHR2 and Halo in the orexin neurons using slice patch clamp and decided a condition of light illumination. Next, we proceeded in vivo experiment using conscious mouse. Optical fibers were bilaterally implanted into the hypothalamus. The activity of orexin neurons was inhibited by illuminating orange light into the hypothalamus through the optical fibers. At the same time, the activity of serotonergic neurons in the raphe nucleus is recorded by the extracellular recordings. Acute inhibition of orexin neurons induced slow wave sleep and the activity of serotonergic neurons was decreased in accordance with initiation of slow wave sleep. This result showed that inhibition of orexin neurons induced slow wave sleep in mice.
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