Conclusion
Our results suggest that chronic SD may damage the neurogenesis in the DG of the hippocampus. However, enrichment stimulation can reverse the processing by promoting neuronal repair related to neuronal plasticity.
Methods
We performed SD in mice by a modified multi-platform method (MMPM). Mice in the SD group were deprived of sleep for 18 h a day. In addition, half of the mice in the chronic SD group were exposed to EE stimuli for 6 h per day. Immunostaining analyzed neurogenesis and neural progenitor cell-differentiated phenotypes in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) region. Result: At 13 weeks, compared with the control group, SD severely impaired the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells, and EE completely reversed the process. SD can induce gliosis in the mouse hippocampus, and EE can delay the process.
Objective
We studied whether enriched environment (EE), a classic epigenetics paradigm, can prevent cellular plasticity damage caused by chronic sleep deprivation (SD).