2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
The roles of sleep in the regulation of the the vascular system of the brain
Project/Area Number |
20K21456
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Review Section |
Medium-sized Section 46:Neuroscience and related fields
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Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
Principal Investigator |
Hayashi Yu 筑波大学, 国際統合睡眠医科学研究機構, 客員教授 (40525812)
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Project Period (FY) |
2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
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Keywords | 睡眠 / 毛細血管 / 脳血流 |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The role of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is not well understood. In this study, we attempted to uncover effects of REM sleep from approaches focusing on the vascular system of the brain. By establishing a technique to observe the microenvironment in the brain of sleeping mice, we found that during REM sleep, capillary blood flow in the cerebral cortex increases approximately twice as much as during wakefulness in various regions, and that the adenosine receptor A2A is required for this increase in blood flow. We also found that this blood flow elevation is greatly impaired in mouse models of certain diseases. In addition, we established an experimental system to test the possibility that the blood flow elevation that occurs during REM sleep may play an important role in the removal of waste products.
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Free Research Field |
神経科学
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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
脳の毛細血管血流は自動調節の機構により安定的なレベルに維持されると考えられているが、我々の研究から、レム睡眠中は他の睡眠覚醒状態とは大きく異なることが判明した。神経細胞の平均発火頻度は覚醒時とレム睡眠とで同程度であることから、neurovascular couplingとは異なる何らかの機構が働くと考えられる。レム睡眠の異常は様々な精神・神経疾患で見られる。本研究成果は、レム睡眠の異常がこうした疾患の悪化に寄与する可能性をも示唆する。従って、異常なレム睡眠を補正する治療は睡眠障害のみならず、精神神経疾患の予防治療の観点からも重要であると考えられ、そうした視点をもたらした点において有意義である。
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