Effects of sleep deprivation on gamma-amino-butyric acid and glutamate contents in rat brain.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on the contents of gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) and glutamate (GLU) in rat brain.


METHODS
Thirty rats were assigned into sleep-deprivation (SD, n=10) group (subjected to treatment on small platforms 6.5 cm of diameter), tank control (TC, n=10) group (treated on large platforms 14 cm of diameter) and control group kept in cages (CC, n=10). Rats in SD group were deprived of rapid eye movement sleep for 96 h by "flower pot" technique. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the GABA and GLU contents in the 3 brain regions of the rats: the frontal cortex, hypothalamus and brain stem.


RESULTS
The rats in SD group showed an increase in the contents of GABA and lowered ratio of GLU/GABA in all the 3 brain regions (P<0.01) compared with the rats in CC group; GLU contents were also increased in the brain stem and hypothalamus of the rats in SD group (P<0.05). No significant changes were found in TC group.


CONCLUSIONS
Rapid eye movement sleep deprivation induces significant changes in the contents and proportion of amino-acid neurotransmitter in rat brain.
Wang
Sheng-Xu
SX
Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
Li
Qiu-Shi
QS
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000378:metabolism*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism*
D018698:Glutamic Acid; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid