Abstract
Xie et al. in their article entitled “sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain” in Science (342: 373–377) (1), provide an important insight into the potential physiology behind the restorative and homeostatic nature of sleep, a basic requirement for normal brain function. This study, utilizing a mouse model explores the clearance of peptides such as amyloid beta, which is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (2) and may offer a platform for the investigation of other forms of neurodegeneration associated with other putative neurotoxic proteins.
Highlights
Xie et al in their article entitled “sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain” in Science (342: 373–377) (1), provide an important insight into the potential physiology behind the restorative and homeostatic nature of sleep, a basic requirement for normal brain function
The brain lacks this mechanism and relies on the recirculation of cerebrospinal fluid, which acquires waste proteins as it flows through the interstitial spaces surrounding brain cells (2) before interfacing with the systemic circulation at the arachnoid granulations
The authors highlight that many of the putative proteins associated with neurodegeneration are found in the interstitial fluid surrounding brain cells and that knocking out aquaporin 4 (AQP4) channels for example reduces the clearance of amyloid beta (Aβ) by 65% (1)
Summary
Xie et al in their article entitled “sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain” in Science (342: 373–377) (1), provide an important insight into the potential physiology behind the restorative and homeostatic nature of sleep, a basic requirement for normal brain function. On induction of anesthesia there was a rapid influx of CSF tracer along the periarterial spaces into the brain parenchyma, similar to naturally sleeping mice (1). They postulate that CSF influx into brain parenchyma is not a function of arterial pulsation and blood pressure but rather the interstitial space volume is dynamic and contracts during wakefulness and expands during sleep (1).
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