Sleep and Melatonin in Diurnal and Nocturnal Rodents

昼间和夜间啮齿动物的睡眠和褪黑激素

• 批准号: 6528757
• 负责人: Colleen M Novak
• 金额: $ 4.62万
• 依托单位: GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-15 至
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6528757
• 关键词: autoradiography; behavioral /social science research tag; biological models; blood chemistry; brain electrical activity; brain mapping; circadian rhythms; drug administration rate /duration; electroencephalography; hormone receptor; hormone regulation /control mechanism; injection /infusion; laboratory rat; melatonin; molecular psychobiology; neural information processing; neurosurgery; protein localization; psychophysiology; radioimmunoassay; receptor expression; sleep; sleep regulatory center; telemetry; thalamic nuclei; video recording system

Numerous studies have shown that melatonin can induce sleep in humans. However, the brain mechanisms responsible for this effect are unknown. This is due to the lack of a laboratory rodent model of the soporific effects of melatonin; attempts to induce sleep with melatonin in laboratory rodents have used nocturnal rodents, meaning rodents active during the dark phase of the cycle, such as rats and Djungarian hamsters. Melatonin does not consistently induce sleep in these rodents. In fact, in most of these studies, melatonin reduced sleep and increased wakefulness. Because these nocturnal animals are most active during the night, when melatonin secretion is the highest, these results should not be surprising. A diurnal rodent model is needed to demonstrate the sleep-inducing effects of melatonin. Arvicanthis niloticus (unstriped Nile grass rat), a diurnal murid rodent, is an ideal animal in which to demonstrate the sleep-inducing effects of melatonin. Further, using this rodent as a model, the brain circuitry through which melatonin induces sleep can be investigated. Results from these studies may clarify how melatonin can be used to treat insomnia and

大量研究表明，褪黑激素可以诱导人类睡眠。然而，造成这种效应的大脑机制尚不清楚。这是由于缺乏褪黑激素催眠作用的实验室啮齿动物模型；在实验室啮齿动物中使用褪黑激素诱导睡眠的尝试使用了夜间啮齿动物，即在周期的黑暗阶段活跃的啮齿动物，例如大鼠和准加仓鼠。褪黑激素并不能始终如一地诱导这些啮齿动物的睡眠。事实上，在大多数研究中，褪黑激素会减少睡眠并增加清醒度。由于这些夜行动物在夜间最为活跃，此时褪黑激素的分泌量最高，因此这些结果并不令人意外。需要一个昼夜啮齿动物模型来证明褪黑激素的睡眠诱导作用。 Arvicanthis niloticus（无条纹尼罗河草鼠）是一种昼行性啮齿动物，是展示褪黑素诱导睡眠作用的理想动物。此外，使用这种啮齿动物作为模型，可以研究褪黑激素诱导睡眠的大脑回路。这些研究的结果可能会阐明褪黑激素如何用于治疗失眠和失眠。