In vivo marker of brainstem myelin is associated to quantitative sleep parameters in healthy young men

Abstract

The regional integrity of brain subcortical structures has been implicated in sleep–wake regulation, however, their associations with sleep parameters remain largely unexplored. Here, we assessed association between quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (qMRI)-derived marker of the myelin content of the brainstem and the variability in the sleep electrophysiology in a large sample of 18-to-31 years healthy young men (N = 321; ~ 22 years). Separate Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) revealed that sleep onset latency and slow wave energy were significantly associated with MTsat estimates in the brainstem (pcorrected ≤ 0.03), with overall higher MTsat value associated with values reflecting better sleep quality. The association changed with age, however (MTsat-by-age interaction—pcorrected ≤ 0.03), with higher MTsat value linked to better values in the two sleep metrics in the younger individuals of our sample aged ~ 18 to 20 years. Similar associations were detected across different parts of the brainstem (pcorrected ≤ 0.03), suggesting that the overall maturation and integrity of the brainstem was associated with both sleep metrics. Our results suggest that myelination of the brainstem nuclei essential to regulation of sleep is associated with inter-individual differences in sleep characteristics during early adulthood. They may have implications for sleep disorders or neurological diseases related to myelin.

Single-nucleus RNA-seq identifies one galanin neuronal subtype in mouse preoptic hypothalamus activated during recovery from sleep deprivation

“… 51 , 52 In mature and precursor oligodendrocytes, respectively, “dorsal/ventral pattern formation” and “positive regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis” were found to be upregulated during RS, which may relate to the proposed role of sleep and wake in myelination regulation and OPC differentiation. 53 , 54 Additional changes include immune-response pathways in microglia, energy pathways in endothelial cells, and extracellular matrix pathways in other vascular cell types that are part of blood-brain barrier, i.e., VLMCs and ABCs. These pathways generally align with the function of the cell types.…”