Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Collaborative Health Initiative Research Program, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Stress. 2020 Jul;23(4):417-426. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2019.1710488. Epub 2020 Jan 10.
One in three adults reports experiencing inadequate or disrupted sleep throughout the night, with the incidence being higher in women than in men. Disturbances in nightly sleep result in physiological alterations that contribute to a number of disorders. Poor sleep quality is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of these disorders through interactions with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The present study investigated the effect of one and three days of restricted sleep on HPA axis reactivity. Male and female C57BL/6J ( = 8/group) mice were sleep-deprived for a 20 h period for one day or three consecutive days using the modified multiple platform method, and then subjected to acute restraint stress. In response to sleep restriction, males showed blunted restraint-induced rises in CORT relative to controls. After three days of restricted sleep, females showed a similar attenuation in restraint-induced CORT. However, this effect was ablated after a single day of sleep restriction. Analyses of gene expression revealed significant elevations in the expression of pituitary HPA axis regulatory genes proopiomelanocortin and corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 in both sexes following sleep restriction. In males, but not females, adrenal mRNA expression of 11β-hydroxylase and melanocortin receptor 2 were also increased. Altogether, these data suggest several possible mechanisms are involved in the HPA axis dysregulation following sleep restriction, and that there are sex differences in how the HPA axis responds to sleep loss.Lay summarySleep restriction alters the stress response differently in males and females following varying nights of sleep restriction. These alterations are accompanied by changes in gene expression in the pituitary and adrenal glands.
三分之一的成年人报告称整晚都有睡眠不足或睡眠中断的情况，女性的发生率高于男性。夜间睡眠紊乱会导致生理变化，从而导致许多疾病。睡眠质量差被认为通过与下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺 (HPA) 轴的相互作用导致这些疾病的发病机制。本研究调查了一天和三天限制睡眠对 HPA 轴反应性的影响。使用改良的多平台方法，雄性和雌性 C57BL/6J（每组 8 只）小鼠在 20 小时内被剥夺睡眠一天或连续三天，然后进行急性束缚应激。与对照组相比，雄性在限制睡眠后表现出皮质酮诱导升高的反应迟钝。经过三天的限制睡眠后，雌性表现出类似的皮质酮诱导减弱。然而，这种效应在一天的睡眠限制后消失了。基因表达分析显示，限制睡眠后，两性的垂体 HPA 轴调节基因促黑皮质素原和促肾上腺皮质素释放因子受体 1 的表达均显著升高。在雄性中，但在雌性中，肾上腺 11β-羟化酶和黑素皮质素受体 2 的 mRNA 表达也增加。总之，这些数据表明，HPA 轴在限制睡眠后失调可能涉及几种可能的机制，并且 HPA 轴对睡眠不足的反应在两性之间存在差异。
