Dangerous Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Stem Cells

We all feel extremely tired after getting minimal amounts of sleep or after sleeping irregularly. Other than being tired, did you ever think of the effects this lack of sleep has on a molecular level? A study by Asya Rolls from Stanford University School of Medicine found drowsy mice to be poor stem cell donors. She found that being sleep deprived for just four hours affects 50% of the ability of stem cells of the blood and immune system to migrate to the correct locations in bone marrows of recipient mice. It also found to affect the cell types needed to reconstruct a damaged immune system. The study showed sleep deprivation to have negative impacts on hematopoietic stem cell transplants (bone marrow transplants), which are executed to save patients with immune system disorders and/or cancer. However, this condition is not unbeatable because a short time with recovery sleep prior to the transplant can return the donor’s cells to function normally.

The researchers at Stanford made mice sleep deprived for four hours while another group of mice rested. Their stem cells were collected and injected onto 12 other mice (recipient mice).  They then looked in the blood of the recipient mice, after 8-16 weeks, for the prevalence of myeloid cell, an immune cell derived from the donated stem cells. The stem cells of well-rested mice produced 26% myeloid cells, while the sleep deprived stem cells only produced 12%. The second part of the study looked at the labeled stem cells from sleep deprived and from rested mice migration from the blood into the bone marrow in the recipient mice. 3.3% of stem cells migrated into the bone marrow from blood for the rested mice after 12 hours. Instead, only 1.7% of sleep deprived mice stem cells migrated into the bone marrow after 12 hours. Sleep deprived stem cells also were also found to respond less to RNA message, which controls inhibition of migration, and less to natural chemical signals activating cellular migration. Recovery sleep of just 2 hours helped in recovering the normal function of stem cell’s ability to migrate in transplants.

This study on sleep deprivation on stem cell migration caught my attention because of the recent seminars held at Loyola University Chicago, in which Dr. Hui Ye and Dr. Cavanaugh explained their research. Dr. Hui found that 115 V/m direct current (DC) electric field stimulated directional movement of neural precursor cells. The optimum electric current as mentioned will also enhance differentiation between of the cells into neurons and arrange functional differentiation. In this case, Dr. Ye looked at the effects of electric current in stem cell migration, while Asya Rolls focused on the effects of sleep deprivation in stem cell migration. Dr. Cavanaugh researched on the identification of circadian output circuit for rest in Drosophila. He found CRF homolog, DH44, as a circadian output molecule that is expressed by PI neurons, which is important in the circadian output pathway. After attending the seminars, I wonder how finding and enhancing the most relevant/important circadian output pathway would improve hours sleeping, which when combined with delivering an optimal electrical current would lead to better stem cell migration in mice (and humans in the future).

Work Cited:

Cavanaugh, D., Geratowski, J., Wooltorton, J., Spaethling, J., Hector, C., Zheng, X., . . . Sehgal, A. (2014). Identification of a Circadian Output Circuit for Rest:Activity Rhythms in Drosophila. Cell, 689-701.

Conger, K. (2015, October 14). Sleep deprivation affects stem cells, reducing transplant efficiency. Retrieved November 24, 2105, from https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/sleep-deprivation-affects-stem-cells-reducing-transplant-efficiency.html

Zhao, H., Steiger, A., Nohner, M., & Ye, H. (2015). Specific Intensity Direct Current (DC) Electric Field Improves Neural Stem Cell Migration and Enhances Differentiation towards βIII-Tubulin Neurons. PLOS ONE. doi:10.1371