2.1 Human periphery blood
Human periphery blood were obtained from chronic insomia(CI) patients from 8 am to 10 am and then centrifuged at 2,000 g for 10min at 4◦C.Plasma cytokines were stored at 80◦C for further analysis.Levels of IGF-1 were measured using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits from Abcam (Elabscience, China).The protocols were approved by the institutional review boards in Tianjin Medical University General Hospital. Participants were recruited from Tianjin Medical University General Hospital. The chronic insomia patients were diagnosed according to the standards described in the Internationalclassification of sleep disorders (ICSD-3) criteria [19]. The control subjects had no history of sleep disorders.
2.2Animals
This study was carried out in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the Ethics Committee of Animal Experiments of Tianjin Medical University. The protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Animal Experiments of Tianjin Medical University. Male C57BL/6 mice, 8 to 10 weeks old, were used. The mice were randomly assigned to each experimental group. All mice were housed in pathogen-free conditions in the vivarium facilities and all surgeries were performed with animals under anesthesia. Reporting of this study complies with the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines.
2.3 Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation was induced using the modified multiple platforms method as in our previous studies[20,21]. A water box was used which is 50 cm long, 30 cm wide, and 30 cm high. Eight rounded platforms were evenly placed in the water box, which each had a diameter of 3 cm and a height of 6 cm, with intervals between the platforms of 7 cm. Only 6 mice were in the containers at a time, so that they could move without restriction. The water level was controlled to be 1 cm below the platform height and the water was maintained at a temperature of 22 ± 2°C. Food and water were placed in the top of the box where the mice could get to it without difficulty.
Before the sleep deprivation sessions, mice were placed in the modified multiple platform water box for 2 hours every day for 3 consecutive days to adapt to the environment. Sleep deprivation sessions began at 9:00 am, after which the mice were taken out of the deprivation boxes from 17:00 to 21:00 every day and placed in cages where they had free access to food and water for 4 hours. Sleep deprivation sessions were repeated for a total of five days, and the water in the box was replaced every day.
2.4 Experimental groups and drug administration
Animals were randomly assigned to one of four groups: Cage control Group (CC group); sleep deprivation for 5 days (SD group); sleep deprivation with intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of PBS for 5 days (SD + PBS group); and sleep deprivation with i.p. administration of rhIGF-1 for 5 days (SD + IGF-1 group). Based on previous studies (21,22), 50 ug/kg IGF-1 was administrated by i.p. injection at 17:00 following each sleep deprivation and session. The PBS was similarly administrated at 50ug/kg by i.p. injection in the SD + PBS group. All animals were operated on at 9 am.
2.5 Behavioral testing
Spatial learning and memory were assessed using a morris water maze (MWM) test [22]. Briefly, the experimental apparatus consisted of a round water tank (150 cm wide and 50 cm high) filled with water (at 25°C) and surrounded by visual cues around the tank. An invisible platform (15 cm wide and 35 cm high) was placed 1 cm below the surface of the water in one of four target quadrants. The spatial learning and memory ability of mice were evaluated by the number of times finding the platform, time in target quadrant and average swimming speed.
Mice were tested in different quadrants four times a day. In each trial, the mice were released into the water randomly from one of the four quadrants with their faces toward the wall of the maze. The location of the platform remained fixed during the acquisition phase and the rats were allowed to swim for 60s to find the invisible platform. After the animal found the platform, it was allowed to remain there for 20–30s and then returned to the cage to wait another 20–30s before the start of the next trial. The time taken to find the invisible platform was recorded. The mice trained at 8:30 am daily after sleep deprivation. After the fourth trial, the animals were kept warm and then put back in the sleep deprivation box. After 5 days of sleep deprivation, a probe phase was performed to assess spatial memory retention. In the probe test, the platform was removed and each mouse was allowed to swim for 60s. The time and distance spent in the target quadrant and the frequency of crossing the target quadrant were recorded as measures of spatial memory retention. Data collection was automated using a video image motion analyzer.
2.6 Elisa
Hippocampal tissues were isolated from brain tissue on ice and homogenized with iced normal saline to a 10% (w/v) homogenate, and then centrifuged (1500 rpm for 10 min) and the supernatants were collected. IGF-1 levels in supernatants from hippocampal tissue cultures were measured with a quantitative ELISA by using a ELISArray Kit from Abcam (Cambridge, United Kingdom). We applied an ELISA protocol under uniform conditions, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Measurements were taken in duplicate on individual mouse brains (n =6 mice per group), and the results are expressed as mean optical density.
2.7 Quantitative real-time PCR
Total RNA was extracted from hippocampal tissues with Trizol. The concentration of RNA was quantified by ultraviolet spectrophotometry at 260/280 nm. Total RNA was reverse-transcribed into complementary DNA (cDNA) by using the SuperScript First-Strand Synthesis System for qPCR (Invitrogen).
The primers used to measure gene expression are the following: IGF-1 (F:GCTGGACCAGAGACCCTTTTG; R:AGGTGCCC TCCGAATGCT), TNF-α (F:CGGGCAGGTCTACTTTGGAG; R:ACCCTGAGCCATAATCCCCT), IL-1β (F: TGCCACCTTTTGACAGTGATG; R:TGATGTGCTGCTGCGAGATT), IL-6 (F:AGCCAGAGTCCTTCAGAGAGAT; R:AGGAGAGCATTGGAAATT GGGG), and GAPDH (F:GCCAAGGCTGTGGGCAAGGT; R:TCTCCAGGCGGCACGCAGA), (F = forward, R = reverse). All procedures were strictly performed as per instructions. The PCR program was run at the following cycling conditions: 44 cycles of 10 sec at 95°C, 30 sec at 58°C, and 20 sec at 72°C. Specificity of the PCR product was confirmed by examination of dissociation reaction plots. A distinct single peak indicated that a single DNA sequence was amplified during PCR. The expression levels of mRNAs were analyzed by the method of 2△△Ct. The result was calculated as levels of target mRNAs relative to GAPDH.
2.8 Western blot
Hippocampal tissue was removed from each group and was homogenized by sonication in a ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation buffer containing protease and phosphatase inhibitors (Complete Protease Inhibitor Cocktail and PhosStop Phosphatase Inhibitor Cocktail; both from Roche Diagnostics). Protein concentration was assessed with BCA Assay Kit (Solarbio Life Science, Beijing, China), and 10-20 ug protein was loaded per lane. Equal amounts of proteins were deposited on 10% Tris-glycine gradient gels (Bio-Rad) at 80 V and the voltage was then raised to 120 V. The proteins were transferred onto PVDF membranes for 1.5 h at 4°C with a current of 100 V. The membranes were blocked for 2 h at room temperature in 5% nonfat dry milk powder dissolved in buffer and incubated with primary antibody overnight at 4°C. The primary antibodies used were anti- p-AKT (1:1000, Cell Signal Technology, USA), rabbit anti-AKT (1:1000, Cell Signal Technology, USA), rabbit anti-p-GSK3β (1:1000, Cell Signal technology, USA), rabbit anti-GSK (1:1000, Cell Signal Technology, USA), rabbit anti-Caspase-9 (1:2000), rabbit anti-Bcl-2 (1:1000), mouse anti-GAPDH (1:2000, TransGen Biotech Co., Beijing, China), and mouse anti-β-action (1:5000, TransGen Biotech Co., Beijing, China). The day following incubation, the membranes were washed 3 times for 5 min each at room temperature, incubated with a horseradish peroxidase coupled secondary antibody (1:6000, TransGen Biotech Co., Beijing, China) for 1 h, and washed 3 times for 5 min each at room temperature. The membrane was scanned on an Odyssey Infrared Imaging System (Bio-Rad). The optical densities of target protein bands were measured and normalized to the corresponding β-actin bands. Samples were run in triplicate or quadruplicate.
2.9 Statistical analysis
Data were presented as mean ± SEM. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc tests was used to compare among the four groups. Data with a nonparametric distribution were analyzed using Mann-Whitney tests. A P value < 0.05 was considered significant. SPSS for Windows version 17.0 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for analyses.