Academic Research

Associate Professor Yu-Tang Tung and her laboratory subjected mice to 3 days of acute sleep deprivation using a modified multiple-platform method. The results showed that sleep deprivation disrupted gut circadian rhythms, altered gut microbiota composition by increasing harmful bacteria and decreasing beneficial bacteria, and reduced propionate production, thereby leading to gut inflammation and barrier dysfunction. This further allowed harmful substances such as LPS to enter the bloodstream and trigger systemic inflammation. At the same time, sleep deprivation induced inflammation in the cerebral cortex and prefrontal cortex and impaired serotonin receptor signaling in the hippocampus, ultimately resulting in anxiety-like behavior. The study was published in Microbiological Research (Yang et al., 2023).

Article source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944501322003329