Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain
Xie L · Kang H · Xu Q · Chen MJ · Liao Y · Thiyagarajan M · O'Donnell J · Christensen DJ · Nicholson C · Iliff JJ · Takano T · Deane R · Nedergaard M
Science · 2013
What the research tells us
Mouse experiments linked natural sleep and anaesthesia with extracellular space, cerebrospinal-fluid influx and tracer clearance. The study measured both influx and clearance of cortically injected radiolabelled amyloid-β and inulin; faster amyloid-β clearance during sleep provides mechanistic evidence concerning brain solute transport.
Scope & interpretation
Invasive procedures, state, timing, anaesthetic and tracer molecules matter. Injection routes, molecules and estimation differ from Miao and colleagues' 2024 study, so one result cannot simply replace the other. Mouse mechanisms do not directly quantify human catch-up-sleep benefits.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- Awake, naturally sleeping and anaesthetised mice, with experiment-specific subsamples and repeated measurements.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Natural sleep/wake and ketamine–xylazine anaesthesia, with CSF tracing, TMA extracellular-space measurements, amyloid-β/inulin clearance and adrenergic manipulation.
- OUTCOMES
- Extracellular volume fraction, tracer influx and clearance, interpreted separately by experiment.
- TIME FRAME
- Short-term state and tracer experiments; no human clinical follow-up.
Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Scientific review
Not yet scientifically reviewed
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing. Scientific review is recorded separately on this page.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
The body results and Figures 1–4 captions were read through. Key supplementary methods remain unavailable, leaving experiment-specific denominators and procedural details to be checked.
- Study funding
- NIH/NINDS NS078167, NS078304 and NS028642.
- Competing interests
- A complete separate competing-interest statement has not been located.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
Revision history
- · v1.0
Added the 2013 mouse study and clarified that it includes clearance as well as influx experiments.