Nakamura Akira, Kuwaki Tomoyuki
Department of Autonomic Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
Early Hum Dev. 2003 Dec;75 Suppl:S167-74. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2003.08.019.
Although the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been decreased by education programs to avoid sleeping in prone position, the pathological mechanisms of SIDS have not fully been understood. Basic research on sleep apnea using experimental animals may help further understanding and prevention of SIDS because the syndrome is thought as inability to wake up from respiratory arrest (apnea) during sleep. Although several animal models of sleep apnea have been described previously, mice would be useful experimental animals in that these animals are frequently used in genetic engineering. Those considerations prompted us to establish a method for measuring ventilation of mice concomitantly with electroencephalography and electromyography for assessing sleep-wake states. Normal wild-type mice developed two types of central sleep apneas (CSA), that is, post-sigh and spontaneous apneas, as normal humans do. Moreover, post-sigh apneas in mice were observed exclusively during slow-wave sleep (SWS) while spontaneous apneas were seen in both SWS and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These characteristics are very similar to those of sleep apneas in healthy human infants and children. Therefore, mice seem to be a promising experimental animal model for studying the genetic and molecular basis of respiratory regulation and dysregulation during sleep in humans, especially infants and children. However, we should keep in mind limitations in studying mice as an animal model of SIDS, since they are nocturnal rodents and they sleep in the prone position.
尽管通过教育项目避免婴儿俯卧睡眠，婴儿猝死综合征（SIDS）的发病率已有所下降，但SIDS的病理机制尚未完全明确。利用实验动物对睡眠呼吸暂停进行基础研究，可能有助于进一步理解和预防SIDS，因为该综合征被认为是在睡眠期间无法从呼吸骤停（呼吸暂停）中醒来。尽管此前已描述了几种睡眠呼吸暂停的动物模型，但小鼠将是有用的实验动物，因为这些动物常用于基因工程。这些考虑促使我们建立一种在测量小鼠脑电图和肌电图以评估睡眠-觉醒状态的同时测量其通气的方法。正常野生型小鼠会像正常人类一样出现两种类型的中枢性睡眠呼吸暂停（CSA），即叹息后呼吸暂停和自发性呼吸暂停。此外，小鼠的叹息后呼吸暂停仅在慢波睡眠（SWS）期间观察到，而自发性呼吸暂停在SWS和快速眼动（REM）睡眠中均可见。这些特征与健康人类婴儿和儿童的睡眠呼吸暂停非常相似。因此，小鼠似乎是研究人类尤其是婴儿和儿童睡眠期间呼吸调节和失调的遗传和分子基础的一个有前景的实验动物模型。然而，我们应该牢记将小鼠作为SIDS动物模型进行研究的局限性，因为它们是夜行性啮齿动物，且睡眠时呈俯卧姿势。
