The Effect of Electroconvulsive Shock on Chloramphenicol-Induced Insomnia in Freely-Moving Rats

Choo, Il Han; Kim, Jeong Soo; Hong, Seung Chul; Han, Jin Hee; Lee, Sung Pil

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Muramyl peptide derived from bacterial cell wall has been identified as one of several endogenous sleep-promoting factors. Several studies have shown that the administration of antibiotics decreased sleep amount as well as bacterial colony numbers in rats. Electroconvulsive shock (ECS)has been widely used in the treatment of many psychiatric disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, and some cases of schizophrenia. However exact mechanism of ECS on the normal or psychiatric condition is not well understood so far. Previous studies indicated that ECS has diverse effects on sleep parameters both in the human and animal subjects. However, there was no report to examine the relationship between effects of ECS and sleep in the antibiotic imposed animal subjects. Therefore the author studied the effects of ECS on chloramphenicol-induced insomnia in rats.
METHODS
Twelve Sprague-Dawley strain rats were divided into control (N=6)and experimental group (N=6) The sleep-wake activity was recorded continuously for consecutive three days(baseline, day 1 and day 2) On day 1, both groups were intraperitoneally injected with chloramphenicol 150mg/kg. On day 2, the control group was intraperitoneally injected with chloramphenicol 150mg/kg only, whereas experimental group received ECS an hour after they were injected with chloramphenicol 150mg/kg.
RESULTS
1)Chloramphenicol administration decreased light period slow wave sleep (SWS) (t=4.944, p=0.000) and paradoxical sleep (PS) (t=3.887, p=0.003) as well as total SWS(t=2.98, p=0.012)and total PS (t=4.391, p=0.001) 2)ECS increased dark period SWS(t=-3.863, p=0.003)and dark period PS (t=-2.458, p=0.034)as well as total dark period sleep (t=-4.302, p=0.002)
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that ECS may be effective to reverse chloramphenicolinduced insomnia in rats. Furthermore, chloramphenicol-induced insomnia in rats could be a useful animal model for the future sleep research.