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A study of the mechanism of L-nna on sleep inhibition

Zhang Qian, Wang Shuchun, Qiao Peng, Hu Qunyuan, Chen Lichao, Wang Yuruo

Department of Physiology, Henan Medical University. Zhengzhou 450052, Henan, China

Abstract

In the present study, the sleep-waking cycle and the immunoreactivity of 5-HTcontainingneurons in rats receiving intraperitoneal injections of N-Nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA, 50 mg/kg) and L-arginine (L-arg, 110 mg/kg) were observed respectively.The results showed that injection of L-NNA suppressed both slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and increased mean arterial pressure (MAP). L-arg markedly attenuated MAP, whereas SWS and REMS were unchanged. The effects of L-NNA on sleep and MAP were reversed by preinjection of L-arg. In comparison with control group, the positive cells in dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) and raphe magus nucleus (MnR) increased 2 h after injection of L-NNA. The effect was attenuated by preadministration of L-arg. All these results suggest that L-arg: NO pathway is involved in theregulation of sleep-waking cycle and the increment of the positive immunoreactivity of the 5-HT-containing neurons in the DR may be related to the sleep-suppressive effects induced by L-NNA.

Key words: Sleep-waking cycle;Nitric oxide;Dorsal raphe nucleus;5-HT

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Citing This Article：

Zhang Qian, Wang Shuchun, Qiao Peng, Hu Qunyuan, Chen Lichao, Wang Yuruo. A study of the mechanism of L-nna on sleep inhibition. Acta Physiol Sin 1997; 49 (5): (in Chinese with English abstract).