Sleep Disturbances After Chronic Alcohol Consumption
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SLEEP DISTURBANCES AFTER CHRONIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: HOMEOSTATIC DYSREGULATION OR CIRCADIAN DESYNCHRONY? By RONG GUO A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Program in Neuroscience JULY 2016 ©Copyright by RONG GUO, 2016 All Rights Reserved ©Copyright by RONG GUO, 2016 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of RONG GUO find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. _____________________________________________________ Steven M. Simasko, Ph.D., Co-Chair _____________________________________________________ Heiko T. Jansen, Ph.D., Co-Chair _____________________________________________________ Barbara A. Sorg, Ph.D. _____________________________________________________ Ilia Karatsoreos, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, I would like to thank my mentors, Drs. Steven Simasko and Heiko Jansen. They have not only helped me grow my knowledge in the field but also deepened my understanding of science and research. They are supportive, encouraging, and inspiring. I’m glad that we were able to work together and turn my initial research interest in sleep and alcohol into such a nice project. I appreciate their help and guidance both in my studies and in my career. It is my pleasure to be part of their team. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Barbara Sorg and Ilia Karatsoreos, for their help during numerous occasions in my research. They have provided insightful thoughts that helped shape my project and this dissertation. They also have given me great advice regarding my future career. I have learned a lot from them and it was an honor to be able to work with them. I would like to thank the past and present members of the Simasko lab and the Jansen lab, especially Jamie Gaber, Christi Pedrow, and Brandon Hutzenbiler, and many others who were willing to help me along the path of my graduate work. I’d like to give my special thanks to Derrick Phillips, who has been a great classmate, lab-mate, office ‘roommate’, and dear friend. It would not have been possible to accomplish much without all their enthusiastic help. I would also like to thank all members of the department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience at WSU, especially the office and vivarium staff. I appreciate their kindness and patience with me. In addition, I would like to thank the financial support from the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Program at WSU, which supported the initiation of my projects. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my dear families and friends for their unconditioned love, support, and faith. It means the world to me to have them in my life. iii SLEEP DISTURBANCES AFTER CHRONIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: HOMEOSTATIC DYSREGULATION OR CIRCADIAN DESYNCHRONY? Abstract by Rong Guo, Ph.D. Washington State University July 2016 Co-Chairs: Steven M. Simasko Heiko T. Jansen Chronic alcohol use often leads to sleep disturbances such as insomnia and sleep fragmentation, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Sleep is regulated by two main processes: a homeostatic process representing the build-up of sleep pressure during wake and a circadian process integrating sleep timing with environmental cues. It is possible that chronic alcohol exposure impairs sleep through either process or both. This dissertation presents investigations to address these possibilities. We first determined if chronic alcohol exposure impaired the homeostatic regulation of sleep by using a sleep deprivation challenge. We found that alcohol-treated rats showed robust and relatively normal compensatory increase in sleep time and sleep intensity (as measured by slow wave amplitude) within 24 hours after the challenge, but the recovery sleep of these rats was delayed and fragmented. These results suggest that chronic alcohol exposure may weaken the stability of sleep states, leading to sleep fragmentation, but the homeostatic regulatory mechanisms were most likely intact. We next determined if chronic alcohol treatment altered the integrity of circadian systems by examining diurnal rhythms of body temperature, locomotor, iv plasma corticosterone, and Per1 expression in the master pacemaker (suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN) and in the HPA axis (pituitary and adrenal glands). We found that after chronic alcohol exposure these processes still exhibited a 24-hour cycle, but the cycles were less robust and more variable. Most importantly, the phase relationships among diurnal physiological rhythms, and between the central and peripheral molecular clocks, were significantly altered leading to desynchronized circadian processes. Lastly, we placed rats under constant darkness to remove the external light Zeitgeber and found that constant darkness stabilized the dampened rhythms and normalized the blunted distribution of sleep/wake time caused by chronic alcohol exposure. Taken together, our studies suggest that chronic alcohol exposure: 1) weakens the stability of sleep states leading to unstable and fragmented sleep, 2) compromises the ability of SCN to synchronize internal clocks and to integrate sleep timing with the external light Zeitgeber, and 3) does not prevent the animal from responding to the build-up of sleep pressure. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ x DEDICATION....................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Alcohol and Alcoholism ················································································· 3 A. Alcoholic Beverages ··············································································· 3 B. Alcoholism and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) ················································ 4 C. Alcohol-related Pathologies ······································································ 6 D. Alcohol and the Central Nervous System ······················································ 8 E. Summary ··························································································· 10 Alcohol-related Sleep Disturbances ··································································· 11 A. Acute Alcohol and Sleep ········································································· 12 B. Chronic Alcohol and Sleep ······································································ 15 C. Sleep Disturbances and Relapse ································································ 16 D. Treatment Options for Sleep Disturbances in AUD ·········································· 17 E. Possible Mechanisms ············································································· 18 Sleep and Sleep Regulation ············································································· 20 A. Sleep Measurements ·············································································· 20 vi B. Sleep Stages ························································································ 21 C. Rodent Sleep vs. Human Sleep ·································································· 22 D. Sleep Regulation ·················································································· 23 E. Two-Process Model of Sleep Regulation ······················································ 24 Circadian Rhythms ······················································································· 27 A. Molecular Clocks and Circadian Genes ························································ 27 B. The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) ·························································· 28 C. Interaction between Alcohol, Sleep, and Circadian Rhythms ······························ 28 References ································································································· 32 CHAPTER TWO CHRONIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION DELAYS AND FRAGMENTS RECOVERY SLEEP AFTER SLEEP DEPRIVATION IN RATS ....................................... 46 Abstract ···································································································· 47 Introduction ······························································································· 48 Materials and Methods ·················································································· 52 Results ····································································································· 57 Discussion ································································································· 62 References ································································································· 77 CHAPTER THREE CHRONIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN RATS LEADS TO DESYNCHRONY IN DIURNAL RHYTHMS AND MOLECULAR CLOCKS ............................... 82 Abstract ····································································································