Abstract
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects approximately 2.2 million people worldwide and is characterized by frequent bouts of hypoxia during sleep, imbalance of the autonomic nervous system, and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Recent work has shown OSA is also strongly linked to cognitive impairments. In this study, we tested whether chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), an animal model of OSA, elicits anxiety and impairs learning and memory.Eight female adult Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to CIH (94% N2, 6% O2) for eight hours a day during their sleep cycle. Age matched controls were maintained under similar noise conditions, but at room air. After twenty-six weeks of CIH, learning skills were assessed. Using the Morris water maze protocol, animals were trained to swim to a visible platform in a circular pool. Animals underwent the training protocol for five consecutive days with six daily sessions. After training, animals were exposed to CIH for eight more weeks before tests were performed. During the testing session, spatial memory was tested by repeating the Morris water maze test with a hidden platform. In conjunction, anxiety levels were assessed using an open field maze test to quantify the duration of time an animal explores open regions on a platform.Animals exposed to CIH displayed significantly longer learning times (30.94 vs. 14.60 seconds, p < 0.0001, n=8) and lower levels of spatial recognition and memory (latency time 45.25 vs 27.33 seconds, p<0.05, n=8) than controls. Corresponding quantification of tau protein via ELISA demonstrated significant differences between the CIH and control groups (325.7 vs 206.1 pg/mL, p<0.05, n=8). Our results show, in an animal model of OSA, CIH impairs cognitive function. Future work will test if new treatment paradigms for OSA, such as oxytocin network activation, blunts decreases in cognitive abilities and increases in anxiety. NIH 5R01HL147279 This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.
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