Eiland Monica M, Ramanathan Lalini, Gulyani Seema, Gilliland Marcia, Bergmann Bernard M, Rechtschaffen Allan, Siegel Jerome M
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Brain Res. 2002 Jul 26;945(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(02)02448-4.
Sleep deprived rats undergo a predictable sequence of physiological changes, including changes in skin condition, increased energy expenditure, and altered thermoregulation. Amino-cupric-silver staining was used to identify sleep deprivation related changes in the brain. A significant increase in staining was observed in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) of the hypothalamus of rats with high sleep loss (>45 h) vs. their yoked controls. Follow-up experiments showed that staining was not significantly different in rats sleep deprived for less than 45 h, suggesting that injurious sleep deprivation-related processes occur above a threshold quantity of sleep loss. These anatomical changes suggest that the effects of sleep deprivation may be related to protein metabolism in certain brain regions.