Evidence that adrenergic ventrolateral medullary cells are activated whereas precerebellar lateral reticular nucleus neurons are suppressed during REM sleep

Rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is generated in the brainstem by a distributed network of neurochemically distinct neurons. In the pons, the main subtypes are cholinergic and glutamatergic REMS-on cells and aminergic REMS-off cells. Pontine REMS-on cells send axons to the ventrolateral medulla (VLM)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-04, Vol.8 (4), p.e62410-e62410
Main Authors: Stettner, Georg M, Lei, Yanlin, Benincasa Herr, Kate, Kubin, Leszek
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials
Adrenergic Neurons - physiology
Analysis
Animals
Axons
Biology
Blood Pressure
Brain stem
Carbachol
Carbachol - pharmacology
Cerebellum
Cholinergic Agonists - pharmacology
Computer networks
Cortex
Dopamine
Dopamine beta-Hydroxylase - metabolism
Dopamine β-monooxygenase
Ethyl carbamate
Eye movements
Firing rate
Glutamatergic transmission
Hippocampus
Hydroxylase
Lateral reticular nucleus
Male
Medicine
Medulla oblongata
Medulla Oblongata - cytology
Medulla Oblongata - physiology
Neurons
Norepinephrine
Nuclei (cytology)
Pons
Rapid eye movement state
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
REM sleep
Sensory neurons
Single-Cell Analysis
Sleep
Sleep, REM
Spatial discrimination
Spinal cord
Studies
Ventilation
Veterinary colleges
Veterinary medicine
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Summary:Rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is generated in the brainstem by a distributed network of neurochemically distinct neurons. In the pons, the main subtypes are cholinergic and glutamatergic REMS-on cells and aminergic REMS-off cells. Pontine REMS-on cells send axons to the ventrolateral medulla (VLM), but little is known about REMS-related activity of VLM cells. In urethane-anesthetized rats, dorsomedial pontine injections of carbachol trigger REMS-like episodes that include cortical and hippocampal activation and suppression of motoneuronal activity; the episodes last 4-8 min and can be elicited repeatedly. We used this model to determine whether VLM catecholaminergic cells are silenced during REMS, as is typical of most aminergic neurons studied to date, and to investigate other REMS-related cells in this region. In 18 anesthetized, paralyzed and artificially ventilated rats, we obtained extracellular recordings from VLM cells when REMS-like episodes were elicited by pontine carbachol injections (10 mM, 10 nl). One major group were the cells that were activated during the episodes (n = 10). Their baseline firing rate of 3.7±2.1 (SD) Hz increased to 9.7±2.1 Hz. Most were found in the adrenergic C1 region and at sites located less than 50 µm from dopamine β-hydroxylase-positive (DBH(+)) neurons. Another major group were the silenced or suppressed cells (n = 35). Most were localized in the lateral reticular nucleus (LRN) and distantly from any DBH(+) cells. Their baseline firing rates were 6.8±4.4 Hz and 15.8±7.1 Hz, respectively, with the activity of the latter reduced to 7.4±3.8 Hz. We conclude that, in contrast to the pontine noradrenergic cells that are silenced during REMS, medullary adrenergic C1 neurons, many of which drive the sympathetic output, are activated. Our data also show that afferent input transmitted to the cerebellum through the LRN is attenuated during REMS. This may distort the spatial representation of body position during REMS.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0062410