Department of Animal Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 2012 Sep 1;234(1):38-42. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.06.002. Epub 2012 Jun 12.
Prenatal alcohol exposure (AE) is associated with cognitive and neurobehavioral abnormalities, such as increased motor activity and elevated anxiety, that may last a lifetime. Persistent sleep disruption may underlie these problems. Using a rat model, we investigated long-term alterations of sleep-wake behavior following AE during a critical early developmental period. Male rats received 2.6 g/kg of alcohol intragastrically twice daily on postnatal days (PD) 4-9, a developmental period equivalent to the third trimester of human pregnancy (AE group), or were sham-intubated (S group). On PD52-80, they were instrumented for tethered electroencephalogram and nuchal electromyogram recording and habituated to the recording procedures. Sleep-wake behavior was then recorded during one 24 h-long session. Wake, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) were scored in 10 s epochs during 6h of the lights-on (rest) and 6h of the lights-off (active) periods. During the active period, REMS percentage was significantly lower (4.7 ± 0.9 (SE) vs. 8.2 ± 0.9; p < 0.02) and the percentage of SWS tended to be lower (p = 0.07) in AE than S rats (N = 6/group). During the rest period, sleep and wake amounts did not differ between the groups, but AE rats had longer latency to both SWS and REMS onset (p = 0.02 and 0.003, respectively). Our data demonstrate that, in a rat model of prenatal AE, impaired sleep-wake behavior persists into the adulthood. Disordered sleep may exacerbate cognitive and behavioral disorders seen in human victims of prenatal AE.
产前酒精暴露（AE）与认知和神经行为异常有关，例如增加的运动活动和焦虑升高，这些异常可能持续一生。持续的睡眠中断可能是这些问题的基础。我们使用大鼠模型研究了在关键的早期发育期间，AE 后长期睡眠-觉醒行为的变化。雄性大鼠在出生后第 4-9 天（PD）每天两次通过胃内给予 2.6 g/kg 的酒精，这一发育时期相当于人类妊娠的第三个 trimester（AE 组），或进行假插管（S 组）。在 PD52-80，他们被安置用于固定脑电图和颈部肌电图记录，并适应记录程序。然后在一个 24 小时的长会话中记录睡眠-觉醒行为。在灯光开启（休息）的 6 小时和灯光关闭（活跃）的 6 小时期间，以 10 秒的时间段记录觉醒、慢波睡眠（SWS）和快速眼动睡眠（REMS）。在活跃期，AE 大鼠的 REMS 百分比明显降低（4.7 ± 0.9（SE）比 8.2 ± 0.9；p < 0.02），SWS 的百分比也倾向于降低（p = 0.07）（N = 6/组）。在休息期，两组之间的睡眠和觉醒量没有差异，但 AE 大鼠的 SWS 和 REMS 起始潜伏期更长（分别为 p = 0.02 和 0.003）。我们的数据表明，在产前 AE 的大鼠模型中，睡眠-觉醒行为障碍持续到成年期。睡眠障碍可能会加重人类产前 AE 受害者的认知和行为障碍。
