2023-06-08 13:30:54
Some of us are awakened by the slightest noise while others are heavy sleepers and do not emerge until the 10e alarm clock ringing! Where do these differences in the depth of sleep from person to person come from? American neurobiologists may have found the explanation… in our intestines!
American neurobiologists from the Harvard Medical School studied the influence of gut and diet on sleep depth in flies and mice. The results were published in the prestigious revue Cell. And they are absolutely unexpected!
Diet quality regulates sleep depth
The researchers used fruit flies (small flies). The genes regulating the sleep of these animals are known and they are the same as in mice. Different levels of stimuli (low, medium, high) were submitted to the flies during their sleep. It was about vibration. Gene expression was measured during the experiments. It turns out that a protein called CCHa1 seems to be responsible for the depth of sleep during different stimuli. Indeed, when its expression was blocked, the fruit flies woke up at the slightest vibration, whereas when it expresses itself in a significant way, a high level of vibration is needed to wake up the fruit flies. And very surprisingly, it turns out that this protein is produced in the intestines!
CCHa1 is synthesized by intestinal cells in direct contact with the food bolus. The authors observed that a high protein diet promotes the synthesis of CCHa1 and therefore the depth of sleep, both in flies and in mice. In other words, animals that had access to a high-protein diet needed a greater stimulus to wake them up! CCHa1 has the ability to act on specific neurons, PAM cells to Protocerebral Anterior Medial. PAMs are part of a brain structure involved in the regulation of sleep duration. They are dopamine producers. Unusually, dopamine acts here as an element that deepens sleep and not as a neuromediator associated with pleasure. Here, the authors demonstrated a direct link between diet quality and sleep regulation.
The mechanism involved depends on the type of stimulus
In a second part, the authors woke up the animals not with vibrations but with a variation in temperature. In this case, CCHa1 was not involved. The team’s next work will therefore focus on the proteins involved according to the different modes of awakening of the animals. The authors speculate that all the proteins involved could be synthesized in the intestines. It remains to be seen whether this work can be transposed to humans. Be that as it may, this work confirms what we have been sensing for several years now: the intestine plays a central role in many mechanisms of our body.
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