title: Polysomnographic Features of Sleep Disturbances and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder in the Unilateral 6-OHDA Lesioned Hemiparkinsonian Rat.
abstract: Sleep pattern disruption, specifically REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), is a major nonmotor cause of disability in PD. Understanding the pathophysiology of these sleep pattern disturbances is critical to find effective treatments. 24-hour polysomnography (PSG), the gold standard for sleep studies, has never been used to test sleep dysfunction in the standard 6-OHDA lesioned hemiparkinsonian (HP) rat PD model. In this study, we recorded 24-hour PSG from normal and HP rats. Recordings were scored into wake, rapid eye movement (REM), and non-REM (NREM). We then examined EEG to identify REM periods and EMG to check muscle activity during REM. Normal rats showed higher wakefulness (70-80%) during the dark phase and lower wakefulness (20%) during the light phase. HP rats showed 30-50% sleep in both phases, less modulation and synchronization to the light schedule (P < 0.0001), and more long run lengths of wakefulness (P < 0.05). HP rats also had more REM epochs with muscle activity than control rats (P < 0.05). Our findings that the sleep architecture in the HP rat resembles that of PD patients demonstrate the value of this model in studying the pathophysiological basis of PD sleep disturbances and preclinical therapeutics for PD related sleep disorders including RBD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Quynh
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7017-8475
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Vo
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering, John Brown University, Siloam Springs, AR 72761, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Gilmour
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Kala
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Venkiteswaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Jidong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA ; Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Mail Code H109, Room C2846, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Thyagarajan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Subramanian