Gene expression and ELISA data

Obstructive sleep apnea is increasing worldwide, leading to disordered sleep patterns and inflammatory responses in brain and peripheral tissues that predispose individuals to chronic disease. Pro-inflammatory cytokines activate the inflammatory response and their increased expression is observed among mice exposed to experimental sleep fragmentation. Additionally, glucocorticoids are often secreted from the adrenal cortices during sleep loss and are well known to regulate inflammation. However, the temporal dynamics of inflammatory responses and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation in relation to acute sleep fragmentation (ASF; 1-24h) are unknown. Male C57BL/6J mice were exposed to ASF or control conditions (no ASF) over specified time intervals (1, 2, 6, and 24 h) to elucidate the timing of onset of glucocorticoid release and pro-inflammatory responses. Cytokine gene expression (IL-1b, TNF-a) in brain and peripheral tissues and serum glucocorticoid and interleukin-6 (I..., Animals. Male adult C57BL/6J mice between 8-12 weeks of age were used in this study (n=110; Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME).  Mice were given food and water ad libitum and housed under standard rodent colony conditions (lights on: 0800-2000 h, 21°C ± 1°C) at Western Kentucky University. Acute sleep fragmentation (ASF) experiments were performed using automated sleep fragmentation chambers (Lafayette Instrument Company; Lafayette, IN; model 80390) with a thin layer of corn bedding as previously described and each chamber contained no more than five mice. These chambers ensure that mice are subjected to sleep fragmentation and not absolute sleep deprivation. Mice were acclimated to the sleep fragmentation (SF) chambers for 48 h before the commencement of experiments to minimize carryover effects from the different cage environments.  This study was conducted under the approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Western Kentucky University (#19-11), and procedures fo...,   Statistical Analysis.   Data are presented as mean (±SE). All statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism (version 9.0). Two-way ANOVAs assessed the effect of sleep treatment (ASF or NSF), time (1h, 2h, 6h, 12h, 24h), and their interaction on mRNA expression of cytokines, serum CORT levels, and serum IL-6 concentration. One-way ANOVAs were used to assess whether ASF and NSF groups differed significantly from baseline levels (time 0h).  Tukey’s HSD and Bonferroni multiple comparisons were used forÂ