| 配分額 *注記 |
7,540千円 (直接経費: 5,800千円、間接経費: 1,740千円)
2020年度: 3,770千円 (直接経費: 2,900千円、間接経費: 870千円)
2019年度: 3,770千円 (直接経費: 2,900千円、間接経費: 870千円)
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| 研究開始時の研究の概要 |
It is known that sleep disruption affects metabolism and energy balance, but the brain mechanism linking sleep disruption and obesity are poorly defined. Recent work from the WPI-IIIS Lazarus lab suggests a role of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in linking REM sleep to appetite for highly palatable food (McEown K, et al. eLife 2016). Moreover, the lab discovered that REM sleep is suppressed by activation of REM-active dopaminergic or GABA mesopontine neurons (Takata Y, et al., J Neurosci 2018). Thus, a mesopontine-mPFC circuit may control metabolic effects of REM sleep.
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| 研究実績の概要 |
Our lab recently revealed the crucial importance of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in linking sleep quality with food preference and energy consumption (McEown et al., Elife, 2016, pii:e20269). Given that midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons have dense projections to the mPFC, we aimed in this project to elucidate the precise role of DA neurotransmission in mediating food preference based on their nutritional and metabolic impact. To interfere with DA neurotransmission, we employed chemogenetics to selectively inhibit DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA).
After habituation into our behavioral settings, animals were given free access to highly palatable food (Chocolate and cheese) and standard laboratory chow. Food preference and intake was monitored daily under both baseline 12h/12h light/dark (LD) cycle and following 6h sleep deprivation. Under LD conditions, control animals showed high preference for palatable fatty items (cheese) over carbohydrate-rich food (chocolate and standard chow). After inhibition of DA neurons, animals still show a preference for fatty food over sweet food.
Following sleep deprivation (SD), control animals dramatically shifted their preference to sweet food items over fatty-food and standard chow. Inhibition of midbrain VTA DA neurons abolished this response, leading to similar food consumption pattern after SD compared to LD baseline conditions.
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