Sleep apnea and effect of chemostimulation on breathing instability in mice

Sleep apnea occurs in humans and experimental animals. We examined whether it also arises in adult mice. Ventilation in male adult 129/Sv mice was recorded concomitantly by electroencephalograms and electromyograms for 6 h by use of body plethysmography. Apnea was defined as cessation of plethysmographic signals for longer than two respiratory cycles. While mice breathed room air, 32.3 +/- 6.9 (mean +/- SE, n = 5) apneas were observed during sleep but not in quiet awake periods. Sleep apneas were further classified into two types. Postsigh apneas occurred exclusively during slow-wave sleep (SWS), whereas spontaneous apneas arose during both SWS and rapid eye movement sleep. Compared with room air (9.1 +/- 1.4/h of SWS), postsigh apneas were more frequent in hypoxia (13.7 +/- 2.1) and less frequent in hyperoxia (3.6 +/- 1.7) and hypercapnia (2.8 +/- 2.1). Our data indicated that significant sleep apnea occurs in normal adult mice and suggested that the mouse could be a promising experimental model with which to study the genetic and molecular basis of respiratory regulation during sleep.