Role of polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule in rapid eye movement sleep regulation in rats

Recent evidence suggests that synaptic plasticity occurs during homeostatic processes, including sleep-wakefulness regulation, although the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA NCAM) is a transmembrane protein that has been implicated in various forms of plasticity. To investigate whether PSA NCAM is involved in the neuronal plasticity associated with spontaneous sleep-wakefulness regulation and sleep homeostasis, four studies were conducted using rats. First, we showed that PSA NCAM immunoreactivity is present in close proximity to key neurons in several nuclei of the sleep-wakefulness system, including the tuberomammillary hypothalamic nucleus, dorsal raphe nucleus, and locus coeruleus. Second, using western blot analysis and densitometric image analysis of immunoreactivity, we found that 6 h of sleep deprivation changed neither the levels nor the general location of PSA NCAM in the sleep-wakefulness system. Finally, we injected endoneuraminidase (Endo N) intracerebroventricularly to examine the effects of polysialic acid removal on sleep-wakefulness states and electroencephalogram (EEG) slow waves at both baseline and during recovery from 6 h of sleep deprivation. Endo N-treated rats showed a small but significant decrease in baseline rapid eye movement (REM) sleep selectively in the late light phase, and a facilitated REM sleep rebound after sleep deprivation, as compared with saline-injected controls. Non-REM sleep and wakefulness were unaffected by Endo N. These results suggest that PSA NCAM is not particularly involved in the regulation of wakefulness or non-REM sleep, but plays a role in the diurnal pattern of REM sleep as well as in some aspects of REM sleep homeostasis.