University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6074, USA.
Curr Top Med Chem. 2011;11(19):2452-6. doi: 10.2174/156802611797470321.
The cellular substrates of sleep are incompletely described, but historically they have been thought to be neuronal. According to one view, sleep is produced by interactions between wake-promoting neurons, sleep-inducing neurons, and sleep-inducing substances released by neurons (e.g. adenosine)[1, 2]. Alternatively, sleep pressure may arise independently among subsets of neurons in a use-dependent fashion within the neocortex (i.e. 'local' sleep) [3, 4]. Implicit in both views is the notion that changes in neuronal activity (or plasticity) is the principle mechanism driving sleep homeostasis. Recent findings, however, suggest that the glial cells known as astrocytes may play critical roles in mammalian sleep.
睡眠的细胞基础尚未完全描述，但从历史上看，人们认为它是神经元。根据一种观点，睡眠是由觉醒促进神经元、诱导睡眠神经元和神经元释放的诱导睡眠物质（例如腺苷）之间的相互作用产生的[1,2]。或者，睡眠压力可能以一种使用依赖的方式在新皮层中的神经元亚群中独立产生（即“局部”睡眠）[3,4]。这两种观点都隐含着神经元活动（或可塑性）的变化是驱动睡眠稳态的主要机制。然而，最近的发现表明，被称为星形胶质细胞的神经胶质细胞可能在哺乳动物睡眠中发挥关键作用。
