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:1992
卷号:89
期号:15
页码:7090-7094
DOI:10.1073/pnas.89.15.7090
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Alzheimer disease patients exhibit irregularities in the patterns of normally circadian (daily) rhythms. Alzheimer-type pathology has been reported in the hypothalamus and in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, the putative site of the circadian oscillator. We examined the relationship between the neuropathology of Alzheimer disease, as modeled by an animal system, and circadian dysregulation by grafting genetically transformed cells that overexpress beta/A4 amyloid into the suprachiasmatic nuclei of adult rats. Grafts of beta/A4-positive cells, but not of control cells, significantly altered the pattern of activity of implanted rats. Although experimental conditions included light-dark cycles that normally tend to drive rats to 24-h rhythms, animals with grafts of beta/A4-positive cells showed abnormally high levels of activity during the light phase in addition to a disrupted circadian pattern. Periodogram analysis demonstrated significant rhythms outside of a circadian range. The body temperature rhythm of these animals was also weak 6 weeks after grafting; however, unlike activity patterns, body temperature regained a circadian period by 8 weeks after cell implantation. These data indicate that disruption of circadian activity is a behavioral measure of the consequences of beta/A4 accumulation in brain implants.