Department of Neuroendocrinology, Center for Behavior and Neurosciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2012 Jan 1;302(1):R112-7. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00326.2011. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
Rodent models for sleep restriction have good face validity when examining food intake and related regulatory metabolic hormones. However, in contrast to epidemiological studies in which sleep restriction is associated with body weight gain, sleep-restricted rats show a decrease in body weight. This difference with the human situation might be caused by the alternation between periods of sleep restriction and sleep allowance that often occur in real life. Therefore, we assessed the metabolic consequences of a chronic sleep restriction protocol that modeled working weeks with restricted sleep time alternated by weekends with sleep allowance. We hypothesized that this protocol could lead to body weight gain. Male Wistar rats were divided into three groups: sleep restriction (SR), forced activity control (FA), and home cage control (HC). SR rats were subjected to chronic sleep restriction by keeping them awake for 20 h per day in slowly rotating drums. To model the human condition, rats were subjected to a 4-wk protocol, with each week consisting of a 5-day period of sleep restriction followed by a 2-day period of sleep allowance. During the first experimental week, SR caused a clear attenuation of growth. In subsequent weeks, two important processes occurred: 1) a remarkable increase in food intake during SR days, 2) an increase in weight gain during the weekends of sleep allowance, even though food intake during those days was comparable to controls. In conclusion, our data revealed that the alternation between periods of sleep restriction and sleep allowance leads to complex changes in food intake and body weight, that prevent the weight loss normally seen in continuous sleep-restricted rats. Therefore, this "week-weekend" protocol may be a better model to study the metabolic consequences of restricted sleep.
当检查食物摄入量和相关调节代谢激素时，睡眠限制的啮齿动物模型在评估食物摄入量和相关调节代谢激素方面具有良好的表面效度。然而，与将睡眠限制与体重增加相关联的流行病学研究相反，睡眠受限的大鼠表现出体重下降。这种与人类情况的差异可能是由于在现实生活中经常发生的睡眠限制和睡眠允许期之间的交替引起的。因此，我们评估了模拟睡眠限制工作日并交替睡眠允许周末的慢性睡眠限制方案的代谢后果。我们假设该方案可能导致体重增加。雄性 Wistar 大鼠分为三组：睡眠限制（SR）、强制活动对照（FA）和普通笼对照（HC）。SR 大鼠通过在缓慢旋转的滚筒中每天保持清醒 20 小时来接受慢性睡眠限制。为了模拟人类的情况，大鼠接受了为期 4 周的方案，每周包括 5 天的睡眠限制期，随后是 2 天的睡眠允许期。在第一周的实验中，SR 明显抑制了生长。在随后的几周中，发生了两个重要的过程：1）SR 期间食物摄入量显著增加，2）睡眠允许周末体重增加，尽管这些天的食物摄入量与对照组相当。总之，我们的数据表明，睡眠限制期和睡眠允许期之间的交替导致食物摄入量和体重的复杂变化，从而防止了连续睡眠受限大鼠通常出现的体重减轻。因此，这种“周-周末”方案可能是研究睡眠限制代谢后果的更好模型。
