Department of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Sleep. 2013 Apr 1;36(4):601-7. doi: 10.5665/sleep.2556.
Gentle handling is commonly used to perform brief sleep deprivation in rodents. It was recently reported that daily acclimation handling, which is often used before behavioral assays, causes alterations in sleep, stress, and levels of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits prior to the actual period of sleep deprivation. It was therefore suggested that acclimation handling could mediate some of the observed effects of subsequent sleep deprivation. Here, we examine whether acclimation handling, performed as in our sleep deprivation studies, alters sleep/wake behavior, stress, or forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity that are impaired by sleep deprivation.
Adult C57BL/6J mice were either handled daily for 6 days or were left undisturbed in their home cages. On the day after the 6(th) day of handling, long-term potentiation (LTP) was induced in hippocampal slices with spaced four-train stimulation, which we previously demonstrated to be impaired by brief sleep deprivation. Basal synaptic properties were also assessed. In three other sets of animals, activity monitoring, polysomnography, and stress hormone measurements were performed during the 6 days of handling.
Daily gentle handling alone does not alter LTP, rest/activity patterns, or sleep/wake architecture. Handling initially induces a minimal stress response, but by the 6(th) day, stress hormone levels are unaltered by handling.
It is possible to handle mice daily to accustom them to the researcher without causing alterations in sleep, stress, or synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Therefore, effects of acclimation handling cannot explain the impairments in signaling mechanisms, synaptic plasticity, and memory that result from brief sleep deprivation.
在啮齿动物中，通常采用轻柔处理来进行短暂的睡眠剥夺。最近有报道称，在行为测定之前经常进行的日常适应处理会导致睡眠、应激和 N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸受体亚基水平在实际睡眠剥夺之前发生改变。因此，有人提出适应处理可能介导了随后睡眠剥夺所观察到的一些影响。在这里，我们研究了日常适应处理（如我们的睡眠剥夺研究中所进行的那样）是否会改变睡眠/觉醒行为、应激或海马突触可塑性，这些都会因睡眠剥夺而受损。
成年 C57BL/6J 小鼠要么每天接受处理 6 天，要么在其巢箱中不受干扰。在处理的第 6 天之后，我们使用间隔四组刺激诱导海马切片中的长时程增强（LTP），之前的研究表明，短暂的睡眠剥夺会损害这种 LTP。我们还评估了基础突触特性。在另外三组动物中，在处理的 6 天期间进行了活动监测、多导睡眠图和应激激素测量。
单独的日常轻柔处理本身不会改变 LTP、活动/休息模式或睡眠/觉醒结构。处理最初会引起轻微的应激反应，但到第 6 天，应激激素水平不受处理的影响。
每天轻柔地处理小鼠使其适应研究者而不会引起睡眠、应激或海马突触可塑性的改变是有可能的。因此，适应处理的影响不能解释由于短暂的睡眠剥夺而导致的信号转导机制、突触可塑性和记忆的损伤。
