Repair in a dream
Sleep turned out to be necessary for the "maintenance" of DNA in neurons
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
Sleep is vital for almost all beings with a central nervous system, but for what exactly it is still not known. Meanwhile, sleep deficiency is fraught with problems not only with the psyche and the "clogging" of the brain with toxins, but also disorders in the cardiovascular system, the development of diabetes and obesity. Another hypothesis about the nature of sleep is proposed in a new article published in the journal Nature Communications (Zada et al., Sleep increases chromosome dynamics to enable reduction of accumulating DNA damage in single neurons).
Scientists from the team of Professor of the Israeli University named after Bar-Ilan Lior Appelbaum (Appelbaum Lior) suggest that sleep allows neurons to repair ("repair") DNA, whose damage inevitably accumulates during work and just life. "It's like pits on the road," explains Applebaum. – They increase especially quickly during the hours of active daytime traffic, and it is more convenient to repair them at night when the traffic is not so dense."
To test their hypothesis, biologists conducted experiments with aquarium fish danio rerio. This is a common model organism for studies of the nervous system, behavior and sleep. Basically, they are similar to humans, but the fish are much simpler than humans and almost transparent, which greatly facilitates research. So, with the help of fluorescent proteins and a microscope, the team from Bar-Ilan was able to observe DNA repair in danio neurons during wakefulness and during sleep.
It turned out that during sleep, chromosomes actively unravel, revealing DNA strands that undergo massive repair. "Despite the risk of almost complete lack of attention to the outside world, animals – ranging from jellyfish and fish to humans – have to sleep so that their neurons carry out "maintenance" of DNA," sums up Lior Appelbaum. "This may explain the appearance and persistence of sleep throughout the animal kingdom."
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