University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, 215 Stemmler Hall, 35th & Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6074, United States.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2013 Oct;23(5):812-8. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2013.02.009. Epub 2013 Mar 18.
Mammalian sleep is regulated by two distinct mechanisms. A circadian oscillator provides timing signals that organize sleep and wake across the 24 hour day. A homeostatic mechanism increases sleep drive and sleep amounts (or intensity) as a function of prior time awake. The cellular mechanisms of sleep homeostasis are poorly defined, but are thought to be primarily neuronal. According to one view, sleep homeostasis arises from interactions between subcortical neurons that register sleep pressure and other neurons that promote either sleep or wakefulness. Alternatively, sleep drive may arise independently among neurons throughout the brain in a use-dependent fashion. Implicit in both views is the idea that sleep homeostasis is solely the product of neurons. In this article, I discuss an emerging view that glial astrocytes may play an essential role in sleep homeostasis.
哺乳动物的睡眠受到两种不同机制的调节。一个昼夜节律振荡器提供时间信号，组织一天 24 小时的睡眠和清醒。一个稳态机制随着之前清醒时间的增加，增加睡眠驱动力和睡眠时间（或强度）。睡眠稳态的细胞机制定义不佳，但被认为主要是神经元的。根据一种观点，睡眠稳态来自于记录睡眠压力的皮质下神经元与促进睡眠或觉醒的其他神经元之间的相互作用。或者，睡眠驱动力可能以依赖于使用的方式独立于大脑中的神经元而出现。这两种观点都隐含着一个观点，即睡眠稳态仅仅是神经元的产物。在本文中，我讨论了一种新出现的观点，即神经胶质星形胶质细胞可能在睡眠稳态中发挥重要作用。
