Molecular correlates of sleep deprivation in the brain of three inbred mouse strains in an around-the-clock experiment

These studies adress differential changes in gene expression between sleep deprived and control mice. We profiled gene expression at four time points across the 24H Light/Dark cycle to take into account circadian influences and used three different inbred strains to understand the influence of genetic background. Keywords: brain, circadian, genetic background, sleep deprivation Experiments were performed on male mice ( AKR/J (A), C57BL/6J (B), DBA/2J (D)), 12-13 weeks of age, purchased from Jackson Laboratory. Animals were housed in a light/dark cycle of 24 hrs with water and food available ad libitum. Mice of the 3 inbred strains were sleep deprived for 6h starting at light onset (ZT0), at the middle of the light (ZT6), at the beginning of the dark (ZT12), or at the middle of the dark (ZT18) period, and sacrificed together with their home-cage controls (n=9 / strain =3 / time =4 / condition =2; total =216 mice).