Szymusiak Ronald, Gvilia Irma, McGinty Dennis
Research Service, V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 16111 Plummer Street, North Hills, CA 91343, USA.
Sleep Med. 2007 Jun;8(4):291-301. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2007.03.013. Epub 2007 Apr 30.
A sleep-promoting function for the rostral hypothalamus was initially inferred from the presence of chronic insomnia following damage to this brain region. Subsequently, it was determined that a unique feature of the preoptic hypothalamus and adjacent basal forebrain is the presence of neurons that are activated during sleep compared to waking. Preoptic area "sleep-active" neurons have been identified by single and multiple-unit recordings and by the presence of the protein product of the c-Fos gene in the neurons of sleeping animals. Sleep-active neurons are located in several subregions of the preoptic area, occurring with high density in the ventrolateral preoptic area (vlPOA) and the median preoptic nucleus (MnPN). Neurons in the vlPOA contain the inhibitory neuromodulator, galanin, and the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. A majority of MnPN neurons activated during sleep contain GABA. Anatomical tracer studies reveal projections from the vlPOA and MnPN to multiple arousal-regulatory systems in the posterior and lateral hypothalamus and the rostral brainstem. Cumulative evidence indicates that preoptic area neurons function to promote sleep onset and sleep maintenance by inhibitory modulation of multiple arousal systems. Recent studies suggest a role for preoptic area neurons in the homeostatic aspects of the regulation of both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep and as a potential target for endogenous somnongens, such as cytokines and adenosine.
延髓下丘脑的促睡眠功能最初是根据该脑区受损后出现慢性失眠推断出来的。随后，人们确定视前下丘脑和邻近的基底前脑的一个独特特征是存在与清醒相比在睡眠期间被激活的神经元。视前区“睡眠活跃”神经元已通过单单位和多单位记录以及睡眠动物神经元中c-Fos基因蛋白产物的存在得以识别。睡眠活跃神经元位于视前区的几个亚区域，在腹外侧视前区（vlPOA）和视前正中核（MnPN）中高密度存在。vlPOA中的神经元含有抑制性神经调质甘丙肽和抑制性神经递质γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）。睡眠期间被激活的大多数MnPN神经元含有GABA。解剖示踪研究揭示了从vlPOA和MnPN到下丘脑后部和外侧以及延髓脑干中多个觉醒调节系统的投射。累积证据表明，视前区神经元通过对多个觉醒系统的抑制性调节来促进睡眠起始和睡眠维持。最近的研究表明，视前区神经元在快速眼动（REM）和非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠调节的稳态方面发挥作用，并且作为内源性促眠物质（如细胞因子和腺苷）的潜在靶点。
