Chronic Caffeine Treatment Prevents Sleep Deprivation-Induced Impairment of Cognitive Function and Synaptic Plasticity

• Published in: Sleep (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2010-04, Vol.33 (4), p.437-444
• Main Authors: ALHAIDER, Ibrahim A, ALEISA, Abdulaziz M, TRAN, Trinh T, ALZOUBI, Karem H, ALKADHI, Karim A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Caffeine - administration & dosage; Caffeine - pharmacology; Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type 2 - blood; Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type 2 - drug effects; Central Nervous System Stimulants - administration & dosage; Central Nervous System Stimulants - pharmacology; Chronic Caffeine and Sleep Deprivation Deficits; Cognition Disorders - etiology; Cognition Disorders - prevention & control; Disease Models, Animal; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Electrophysiological Phenomena - drug effects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hippocampus - drug effects; Learning - drug effects; Long-Term Potentiation - drug effects; Male; Maze Learning - drug effects; Medical sciences; Memory, Short-Term - drug effects; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuronal Plasticity - drug effects; Neuropharmacology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopharmacology; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Sleep Deprivation - complications; Synapses - drug effects; Task Performance and Analysis
• ISSN: 0161-8105; 1550-9109
• DOI: 10.1093/sleep/33.4.437

This study was undertaken to provide a detailed account of the effect of chronic treatment with a small dose of caffeine on the deleterious effects of sleep loss on brain function in rats. We investigated the effects of chronic (4 weeks) caffeine treatment (0.3 g/L in drinking water) on memory impairment in acutely (24 h) sleep-deprived adult male Wistar rats. Sleep deprivation was induced using the modified multiple platform model. The effects of caffeine on sleep deprivation-induced hippocampus-dependent learning and memory deficits were studied by 3 approaches: learning and memory performance in the radial arm water maze task, electrophysiological recording of early long-term potentiation (E-LTP) in area CA1 of the hippocampus, and levels of memory- and synaptic plasticity-related signaling molecules after E-LTP induction. The results showed that chronic caffeine treatment prevented impairment of hippocampus-dependent learning, shortterm memory and E-LTP of area CA1 in the sleep-deprived rats. In correlation, chronic caffeine treatment prevented sleep deprivation-associated decrease in the levels of phosphorylated calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (P-CaMKII) during expression of E-LTP. The results suggest that long-term use of a low dose of caffeine prevents impairment of short-term memory and E-LTP in acutely sleep-deprived rats.