Identification of preoptic sleep neurons using retrograde labelling and gene profiling.

ABSTRACT: In humans and other mammalian species, lesions in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus cause profound sleep impairment, indicating a crucial role of the preoptic area in sleep generation. However, the underlying circuit mechanism remains poorly understood. Electrophysiological recordings and c-Fos immunohistochemistry have shown the existence of sleep-active neurons in the preoptic area, especially in the ventrolateral preoptic area and median preoptic nucleus. Pharmacogenetic activation of c-Fos-labelled sleep-active neurons has been shown to induce sleep. However, the sleep-active neurons are spatially intermingled with wake-active neurons, making it difficult to target the sleep neurons specifically for circuit analysis. Here we identify a population of preoptic area sleep neurons on t

SUBMITTER: Chung S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5554302 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature