The finding could explain why a lack of sleep seems to make people more vulnerable to developing such dementias, says Agnès Nadjar of the University of Bordeaux in France. “We already know that sustained microglial activation has been observed in Alzheimer’s and other forms of neurodegeneration,” he says. This is a more worrying find, says Bellesi excessive microglial activity has been linked to a range of brain disorders. “They are like old pieces of furniture, and so probably need more attention and cleaning,” says Bellesi.īut the team also found that microglial cells were more active after chronic sleep deprivation. Much of the remodelling was of the largest synapses, which are more mature and used more intensively. “We show for the first time that portions of synapses are literally eaten by astrocytes because of sleep loss,” says Bellesi.įor all we know, this may be a good thing. This suggests that sleep loss can trigger astrocytes to start breaking down more of the brain’s connections and their debris. But astrocytes seemed to be more active in sleep-deprived mice – those that had lost eight hours of sleep showed astrocyte activity in around 8 per cent of their synapses, while the cells were active in 13.5 per cent of the synapses of the chronically sleep-deprived animals. Another type, called a microglial cell, prowls the brain for damaged cells and debris.īellisi’s team found that after an undisturbed sleep, astrocytes appeared to be active in around 6 per cent of the synapses in the brains of the well-rested mice. One type of glial cell, called an astrocyte, prunes unnecessary synapses in the brain to remodel its wiring. Read more: So many reasons why sleep is too important to miss
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