Immune Cells Repair Our Brains While We Sleep: Study

Important immune cells like microglia are primarily active while we sleep to fight infection and repair the damage, reveals a new study.

Immune cells called microglia, which play an important role in reorganizing the connections between nerve cells, fighting infections, and repairing the damage, are also mainly active while we sleep. The findings of the study are published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.//

"This research shows that the signals in our brain that modulate the sleep and awake state also act as a switch that turns the immune system off and on," said study lead author Ania Majewska, Professor at the University of Rochester in the US.

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‘Microglia serve as the brain's first responders, guarding the brain and spinal cord and springing into action to stamp out infections or prevent debris from dead cell tissue. ’

In previous studies, Majewska’s lab has shown how microglia interact with synapses, the juncture where the axons of one neuron connect and communicates with its neighbors.

The microglia help maintain the health and function of the synapses and prune connections between nerve cells when they are no longer necessary for brain function.

For the findings, researchers conducted the study on mice.

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The current study points to the role of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that signals arousal and stress in the central nervous system.

This chemical is present in low levels in the brain while we sleep, but when production ramps up, it arouses our nerve cells, causing us to wake up and become alert.

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The study showed that norepinephrine also acts on a specific receptor, the beta2 adrenergic receptor, which is expressed at high levels in microglia.

When this chemical is present in the brain, the microglia slip into a sort of hibernation.

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The study, which employed an advanced imaging technology that allows researchers to observe activity in the living brain, showed that when mice were exposed to high levels of norepinephrine, the microglia became inactive and were unable to respond to local injuries and pulled back from their role in rewiring brain networks.

"This work suggests that the enhanced remodeling of neural circuits and repair of lesions during sleep may be mediated in part by the ability of microglia to dynamically interact with the brain," said study first author Rianne Stowell.

"Altogether, this research also shows that microglia are exquisitely sensitive to signals that modulate brain function and that microglial dynamics and functions are modulated by the behavioral state of the animal," Stowell said.

Source-IANS