标题：β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit modulates protective responses to stress: A receptor basis for sleep-disordered breathing after nicotine exposure
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2002
卷号：99
期号：20
页码：13272-13277
DOI：10.1073/pnas.192463599
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Nicotine exposure diminishes the protective breathing and arousal responses to stress (hypoxia). By exacerbating sleep-disordered breathing, this disturbance could underpin the well established association between smoking and the increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome. We show here that the protective responses to stress during sleep are partially regulated by particular nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). We compared responses of sleeping wild-type and mutant mice lacking the {beta}2 subunit of the nAChR to episodic hypoxia. Arousal from sleep was diminished, and breathing drives accentuated in mutant mice indicating that these protective responses are partially regulated by {beta}2-containing nAChRs. Brief exposure to nicotine significantly reduced breathing drives in sleeping wild-type mice, but had no effect in mutants. We propose that nicotine impairs breathing (and possibly arousal) responses to stress by disrupting functions normally regulated by {beta}2-containing, high-affinity nAChRs.
