The histopathological effects of sleep disorders on striated muscle in rats

To histopathologically examine the change in gastrocnemius muscle created by sleep disorder in rats.

This study was carried out at Giresun University, Turkey from December 2018 to January 2021. A total of 30 Wistar rats were separated into 3 groups as the control group (CG), absence of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (ARS) group, chronic absence of sleep (CAS) group. The lack of sleep was created in all rats. At the end of 21 days, all the rats were euthanized. Degeneration and regeneration findings, and expressions of muscle RING finger 1 (MuRF1), muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), cyclooxygenase 2 (COX 2), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in the gastrocnemius muscles were evaluated histopathologically and immunohistochemically.

Degeneration was found to be greater in the ARS and CAS groups compared to the CG. Regeneration was determined to be significantly lower in the CAS group compared to the ARS group and control group. The number of atrophic fibres was greater in the CAS and ARS groups than in the control group. The IGF1 staining in the CAS group was found to be stronger than in the other 2 groups.

This study demonstrated an increase in findings of degeneration in the gastrocnemius muscle of rats with a lack of sleep. The regeneration was reduced in the group with chronic lack of sleep.