• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us
Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Official Publication of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy

Healthy Sleep Via Overlooked Brain Cells

April 4, 2021 by admin

A new study from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) shows that cells called astrocytes can independently promote longer or deeper sleep in mice. According to a press release from UCSF, the findings could open new avenues for exploring sleep disorder therapies and help scientists better understand brain diseases linked to sleep disturbances, like Alzheimer’s and other dementias, the authors say.

“This is the first example where someone did an acute and fast manipulation of astrocytes and showed that it was able to actually affect sleep,” said Trisha Vaidyanathan, the study’s first author and a neuroscience graduate student at UCSF. “That positions astrocytes as an active player in sleep. It’s really exciting.”

Comprising an estimated 25 percent to 30 percent of brain cells, astrocytes are a type of so-called glial cell that blanket the brain with countless bushy tendrils. This coverage allows each individual astrocyte to listen in on tens of thousands of synapses, the sites of communication between neurons.

UCSF’s Lindzi Wessel writes: “The plentiful cells connect to each other through specialized channels, which researchers think may allow astrocytes located across the brain to function as one unified network. The hyperconnected and ubiquitous astrocytes might be able to drive synchronized signaling in neurons, as suggested by the new study, published March 17, 2021, in eLife.”

“This could give us new insights not only into sleep but into diseases in which sleep dysregulation is a symptom,” said study senior author Kira Poskanzer, PhD, an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. “Maybe some diseases are affecting astrocytes in a way we hadn’t thought about before.”

Filed Under: Blog

Primary Sidebar

More to See

Xywav Oral Solution for Idiopathic Hypersomnia

February 16, 2022 By Alan Hickey

New Insomnia Drug Improves Sleep Outcomes for Adults

February 10, 2022 By Alan Hickey

Tags

apnea CPAP Health Home Sleep Home Sleep Testing insomnia narcolepsy obstructive sleep apnea Sleep sleep apnea sleep apnea symptoms sleep apnea syndrome sleep apnea treatment sleep appliances sleep buisness Sleep Business sleep center Sleep Centers sleep community sleep diagnosis sleep diagnostic sleep diagnostics sleep disease sleep disorder sleep disorder center sleep disordered breathing sleep disorders sleep industry Sleepiness sleeping Sleep Lab sleep labs sleep management sleep medicine sleep monitor sleep physicians sleep problems sleep studies sleep study sleep technologist sleep test sleep testing Technology therapy Treatment

Footer

About SleepDT

SleepDT Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy is a clinical Journal for allied Sleep Professionals, Neurologists, Psychiatrists, Pulmonologists, Primary Care Physicians, and other medical specialists. We also advocate on behalf of patient care in the field of Sleep Medicine

Recent

  • Sleep Hygiene: Which Bedroom Colors to Avoid and which Promote Good Sleep??
  • Xywav Oral Solution for Idiopathic Hypersomnia
  • New Insomnia Drug Improves Sleep Outcomes for Adults
  • Mark Cuban Billionaire Entrepreneur and Television Personality Launches Online Pharmacy for Generic Drugs
  • Americans Say They’re Sleep-Deprived After the Super Bowl

NAVIGATION

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 · Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy