CONSEQUENCES OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION ON THE MORPHOPHYSIOLOGY OF THE GERBILS (Meriones unguiculatus) VENTRAL PROSTATE

• Grant number: 13/16183-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Histology
• Principal Investigator: Sebastião Roberto Taboga
• Grantee: Ricardo Alexandre Fochi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Sleep is a complex neurobiological state, transient and reversible generated by different neural systems, being under control of the circadian rhythm. It can be divided physiologically and by behavioral patterns, in three distinct states: wakefulness, non-REM sleep or NREM and REM or paradoxical sleep. Sleep stages, and especially the paradoxical, are critical for proper physiological functioning of the body, facilitating anabolic processes, regulating body temperature, aiding in immune defense, energy conservation and also promoting the synaptic integrity and plasticity (memory restructuring) . To be an important physiological process, sleep also acts in endocrine regulation, modulating the secretion of several hormones, including steroid hormones acting on the reproductive system. This physiological mechanism although it is still widely studied show to be quite complex. The main way to study the sleep is through its deprivation. This is proven by several studies addressing instrumental methods, demonstrating that paradoxical sleep deprivation promotes important physiological changes, triggering an increase in the incidence of some tumors, including prostate gland. Although the effects of sleep deprivation on metabolism have been widely considered, little is known about their consequences on the reproductive system. Because the prostate is a gland intensely modulated by sex hormones, and sleep a regulatory factor of these hormones, this project aims to assess the possible consequences of paradoxical sleep deprivation has on prostate morphophysiology, specifically on the ventral lobe.