Human and rat gut microbiome composition is maintained following sleep restriction

Abstract

Insufficient sleep increasingly characterizes modern society, contributing to a host of serious medical problems. Loss of sleep is associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurological and cognitive impairments. Shifts in gut microbiome composition have also been associated with the same pathologies; therefore, we hypothesized that sleep restriction may perturb the gut microbiome to contribute to a disease state. In this study, we examined the fecal microbiome by using a cross-species approach in both rat and human studies of sleep restriction. We used DNA from hypervariable regions (V1-V2) of 16S bacteria rRNA to define operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of the microbiome. Although the OTU richness of the microbiome is decreased by sleep restriction in rats, major microbial populations are not altered. Only a single OTU, TM7-3a, was found to increase with sleep restriction of rats. In the human microbiome, we find no overt changes in the richness or composition induced by sleep restriction. Together, these results suggest that the microbiome is largely resistant to changes during sleep restriction.

Repeated sleep disruption in mice leads to persistent shifts in the fecal microbiome and metabolome

“…It is of note that a study published by Zhang et al [17] used a similar sleep restriction protocol (20h/day sleep disruption using a rotating bar for 7 days) but found no changes in the fecal microbiome. There are a few potential reasons for this discrepancy.…”

“…This has led to the hypothesis that there is a relationship between inadequate sleep and the gut microbiome. Only a small number of studies have tested this hypothesis, using heterogeneous sleep disruption protocols (e.g., acute sleep restriction [14,15], chronic sleep fragmentation [16]), in humans [14,17], mice [15,16], and rats [17], and have yielded mixed results [17]. More research is therefore required to explore the relationship between sleep, the gut microbiome, and potential mediators of microbe-host interactions.…”

The Microbiome and Blood Pressure: Can Microbes Regulate Our Blood Pressure?

“…The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is one of the interventions used to reduce blood pressure (98). This diet is rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as low-fat dairy, and at the same time has a low content of saturated and total fat (105).…”

Novel concepts in sleep regulation

“…The interaction between microbiome and sleep/sleep deprivation has already been studied in both humans and animal models. In 2 human partial sleep deprivation studies (sleep restricted to 4 hours per night across 2‐5 days), one found slight changes in microbial phyla, while in the other study, no changes in the operational taxonomic units (describing the richness of the phyla) were found . A study in elderly humans associated sleep quality and cognitive function with differences in gut microbiome .…”

“…A study in elderly humans associated sleep quality and cognitive function with differences in gut microbiome . Sleep fragmentation for 2 weeks in mice resulted in transitions between gut microbiota phyla, while sleep restriction for 20 days in rats resulted in small decrease in operational taxonomic units . The studies suffer from low number of analysed subjects, indicating the preliminary nature of these findings.…”