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Extended Wakefulness: Compromised Metabolics in and Degeneration of Locus Ceruleus Neurons
Extended Wakefulness: Compromised Metabolics in and Degeneration of Locus Ceruleus Neurons
)-dependent en-
zyme, SirT3 augments ETC complex I activity and ATP produc-
tion through deacetylation of complex I proteins, when energy
availability diminishes (Ahn et al., 2008). Additionally SirT3 up-
regulates many antioxidant defenses, including the following:
glutathione reduction via activation of isocitrate dehydrogenase
2 and glutathione dehydrogenase (Someya et al., 2010; Yu et al.,
2012); FoxO3a activation with resultant upregulation of super-
oxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) and catalase (Jacobs et al., 2008); and
Received Oct. 25, 2012; revised Dec. 5, 2013; accepted Jan. 8, 2014.
Author contributions: J.Z., J.A.B., and S.V. designed research; J.Z., Y.Z., G.Z., P.F., L.P., M.M.W., S.R., J.G.D., D.L.,
and S.V. performed research; J.Z. and S.V. contributed unpublished reagents/analytic tools; J.Z., Y.Z., G.Z., P.F., L.P.,
M.M.W., D.L., J.G.D., J.A.B., and S.V. analyzed data; J.Z., J.A.B., and S.V. wrote the paper.
J.Z. was supported by the China Scholarship Council. The studies were performed with support from National
Institutes of Health Grants R01 HL079555 and HL096037 to S.V.; and R01 DK098656 to J.A.B.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Correspondence should be addressed to Sigrid Veasey, University of Pennsylvania, Translational Research Build-
ing, 125 South 31st Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: veasey@mail.med.upenn.edu.
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5025-12.2014
Copyright 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/344418-14$15.00/0
4418 The Journal of Neuroscience, March 19, 2014 34(12):4418 4431
direct activation of SOD2 (Qiu et al., 2010). SirT3 activity, how-
ever, diminishes with aging, contributing to auditory neuron loss
(Someya et al., 2010; Yu et al., 2012). NAD
) it converts to
fluorescent dihydroethidium/ethidium (DHE; Andrews et al., 2005).
Groups of B6, SirT3
/
, and SirT3wt mice randomized to the three
sleep conditions (n 5/group) were given 30 mg/kg dihydroethidine
(Anaspec) intraperitoneally 3 h before termination of the sleep loss or
rested conditions. Brains were procured and processed as above. LCns
were labeled with anti-tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) detected with Alexa
Fluor 488 and were imaged with a Leica SP-5 AOBS confocal micro-
scope using excitation , 488 nm, and emission 590 nm for DHE
imaging (Hu et al., 2006). Using a 1:6 series of midbrain and pontine
sections/mouse, all TH labeled neurons within the LC were examined
for DHE. Images were converted to 8 bit and analyzed for integrated
density over LCns (ImageJ software), and analyzed with two-way
ANOVA (genotype, sleep/wake condition). In addition to measuring
integrated density, we analyzed the percentage of DHE
TH neurons
in the LC nuclei bilaterally for two sections per mouse (n 510/
group) using two-way ANOVA, as above.
LC sections in two separate 1:6 series (n 5, SirT3
/
and SirT3wt)
were double labeled for TH and one of the following: catalase, SirT3,
nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), FoxO3a, cleaved
caspase-3 (CC3) for Sh Wake, Ext Wake, or Rest conditions. Catalase,
SirT3, NAMPT, and FOXO-3a were analyzed as 8-bit gray ImageJ inte-
grateddensities for TH
. Thus, we next
examined whether the rate-limiting en-
zyme for NAD
increased in
response to Ext Wake, relative to Rest (t
5.8, p 0.01; Fig. 4C), and was far higher
in Rest SirT3
/
mice than in Rest
SirT3wt mice (t 7.3, p 0.001). NAD
,
and SirT3 deficiency is associated with marked increases in total
NAD
.
Figure 3. Mitochondrial lysine acetylation varies with wake duration and SirT3. A, Representative immunoblots of LC lysine-
acetylated proteins and loading controls (VDAC1 and tubulin) in mitochondrial (mito) and cytoplasmic (cyto) enriched samples
from SirT3wt mice exposed to Rest (R), Sh Wake (Sh), and Ext Wake (Ext) conditions. B, Summary data (mean SE) integrated
densities for LC mitochondrial isolate-acetylated protein normalized to VDAC1 for the three conditions in SirT3wt LC samples (n
20/group). One-way ANOVA identified significant differences. **p 0.01. C, Mean SE integrated densities for LC cytoplasmic
isolate-acetylated protein normalized to -tubulin for the same conditions (n 20/group). D, Representative Western blots of
SirT3wt LC mitochondrial isolate acetyl-lysine on immunoprecipitate of complex I proteins (left) and complex I protein loading
controls used in normalization (right). E, Mean SE normalized integrated densities for acetyl (Ac)-lysine (Lys) on complex I
immunoprecipitates frommitochondria across the three wake conditions (n 10/group). **p 0.01. F, Representative immu-
noblots of LC lysine-acetylated proteins and loading controls (VDAC1 and tubulin) in mitochondrial (mito) and cytoplasmic (cyto)
enriched samples from SirT3
/
mice exposed to Rest and Ext Wake (Ext) conditions. G, Mean SE integrated densities for
SirT3
/
LC mitochondrial isolate-acetylated protein normalized to VDAC1 for the two conditions (n 20/group), with nonsig-
nificant differences across wake conditions. H, Mean SE integrated densities for SirT3
/
LC cytoplasmic isolate-acetylated
protein normalized to -tubulin for the same conditions (n 20/group). I, Immunoblot examples for Ctx lysine-acetylated
proteins and loading control (VDAC1) in mito samples in SirT3wt (left) and SirT3
/
(right) mice exposed to Rest, Sh Wake (Sh),
andExt Wake(Ext) conditions. J, K, Summary(meanSE) normalizedintegrateddensities for LCmitochondrial isolate-acetylated
protein normalized to VDAC1 for SirT3wt (J ) and SirT3
/
(K) mice, analyzed with one-way ANOVA. *p 0.05.
Zhang et al. SirT3 in Sleep Loss J. Neurosci., March 19, 2014 34(12):4418 4431 4423
The redox response to Sh Wake
requires SirT3
We next sought to determine whether
SirT3 was essential for the antioxidant re-
sponse to Sh Wake and whether loss of
SirT3 would increase O
2
in LCn upon
exposure to Sh Wake. All SirT3
/
and
SirT3wt mice maintained wakefulness
across 95% of the Sh Wake exposure.
Across Rest conditions, SOD2 mRNA
copy numbers (n 68/group) did not
vary with SirT3 genotype (t 1.1, NS; Fig.
5A). As with B6 mice above, SirT3wt mice
exposed to Sh Wake showed increased LC
SOD2 mRNA, relative to Rest (t 4.1,
p 0.01), and increased catalase mRNA
(t 4.1, p 0.01; Fig. 5B). In contrast, in
SirT3
/
mice, SOD2 andcatalase mRNA
did not increase in response to Sh Wake
(SOD2, t 0.05; catalase, t 0.7; NS).
SirT3wt mice had increased LC SOD2
protein in Sh Wake relative to Rest (t
2.7, p 0.05; Fig. 5C,D). In contrast,
SirT3
/
mice showed no difference in
LC SOD2 protein between Rest and Sh
Wake (t 1.8, NS). Thus, SirT3 has a
minimal effect on basal antioxidant en-
zyme levels but is essential for the LC an-
tioxidant responses to Sh Wake.
We then examined the role of SirT3 in
the O
2
between
Rest and Sh Wake conditions (t 0.03,
NS; Fig. 5EG). There was no genotype
effect in the percentage of LCns with DHE
labeling for Rest conditions (t 1.1, NS;
Fig. 5F), and there was no increase in the
percentage of DHE-labeled LCns in SirT3wt mice from rested to
short-term sleep loss conditions (t 0.9, NS). There was, how-
ever, a large increase in the percentage of DHE-positive LCns in
SirT3
/
mice from Rest to Sh Wake (t 10.9, p 0.0001), and
there was a large increase in the percentage of DHE-positive LCns
in SirT3
/
sleep loss compared with that in SirT3wt mice with
3 h of wakefulness (t 6.9, p 0.0001). Similarly, SirT3
/
mice
showedincreasedO
2
signal response to
Sh Wake in SirT3
/
mice, then, was significantly higher than in
SirT3wt mice (t 2.9, p 0.05). Thus, in response to Sh Wake,
SirT3 is essential for the maintenance of redox homeostasis in
LCns.
SirT3 deficiency reduces nuclear FoxO3 and prevents
upregulation of PGC-1in Sh Wake
SirT3 is predominantly a mitochondrial protein; thus, the depen-
dency on SirT3 for the increased SOD2 and catalase mRNA ob-
served in response to Sh Wake implies a mitochondria-to-
nucleus communication. SirT3 has been shown to activate
Foxo3a under conditions of physiological stress (Sundaresan et
al., 2009; Tseng et al., 2013), and transcription of both SOD2 and
catalase are dependent upon Foxo3a activation and nuclear
translocation (Kops et al., 2002). Thus, we next examined
whether Foxo3a inLCns translocates to LCnnuclei inresponse to
Sh Wake and Ext Wake, and whether this response requires
SirT3. The percentage of LCns with strong nuclear FoxO3a label-
ing did not increase with Sh Wake (t 3.3, NS) or with Ext Wake
(t 0.2, NS; Fig. 6A, B). For rested conditions, there was no
genotype effect on the percentage of nuclear Fox3a in LCns (t
1.8, NS) or for Ext Wake (t 3.8, NS). In contrast, under condi-
tions of Sh Wake, there was a strong genotype effect on the per-
centage of FoxO3a-labeled LCn nuclei (t 7.4, p 0.001).
Similarly, in SirT3wt mice, the nuclear Foxo3a signal increased in
Sh Wake mice relative to Rest mice (t 3.6, p 0.05) and was
increased in SirT3wt Sh Wake relative to SirT3
/
Sh Wake mice
(t 9.0, p 0.0001; Fig. 6AC). In contrast, Sh Wake did not
influence nuclear Foxo3a in SirT3
/
mice. Neither SirT3
/
nor SirT3wt mice showed a Foxo3a response to Ext Wake. The
capacity of Foxo3a to regulate antioxidant genes is dependent
upon PGC-1 (Olmos et al., 2009). Therefore, we measured
PGC-1 protein in LC punches across the three wake conditions
and two genotypes, again finding an upregulation in Sh Wake
dependent on SirT3. Specifically, in SirT3wt mice, PGC-1 in-
creased in the LC in response to Sh Wake (t 3.1, p 0.05), but
not in response to Ext Wake (t 0.2, NS; Fig. 6D, E), while in
Figure 4. NAMPT in LCn and cortical NAD
vary with wake duration. A, Representative confocal images within the LC nucleus
across wake conditions. Top shows NAMPT only (green), and bottomshows NAMPT (green) in tyrosine hydroxylase (red)-labeled
LCns, where the signal is predominantly nuclear. Scale bar, 50 m. B, Mean SE NAMPT-integrated densities within LCns
normalized to background (n 5/group), analyzed with one-way ANOVA. *p 0.05. C, NAD
LCns with nuclear FoxO3a. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. ***p 0.001. C, Mean SE
integratedintensity of the nuclear FoxO3a signal inLCns (n5 mice/group), analyzedsimilarly. **p 0.01, ****p 0.0001. D, MeanSE normalizedPGC-1immunointensities for the groups
(n 6 9/group). *p 0.05. E, Immunoblots of PGC-1and loading control -tubulin in LC micropunches from SirT3wt and SirT3
/
mice across the three sleep conditions.
4426 J. Neurosci., March 19, 2014 34(12):4418 4431 Zhang et al. SirT3 in Sleep Loss
Discussion
Impaired cognitive performance following sleep loss is widely
believed to occur as a consequence of increased adenosinergic
and cytokine signaling that fully reverses with recovery sleep (In-
giosi et al., 2013). The concept that neurons succumb to oxidative
stress uponsleeploss has beentested, primarily, inheterogeneous
populations of neurons within the frontal or hippocampal corti-
ces or the entire brainstem, and in aggregate brain tissue injury
has not beenidentified (Gopalakrishnanet al., 2004). The present
studies were designed to test the following hypotheses: (1) that
wakefulness is a significant metabolic stressor to select wake-
activated neurons, in particular LCns; (2) that across short-term
sleep loss, mitochondrial sirtuin activation protects LCn meta-
bolic homeostasis; and (3) that upon longer durations of wake-
fulness this protective response fails, resulting in injury to and
loss of LCns.
Injury to LCns negatively impacts diverse aspects of cognitive
processing and brain health (Usher et al., 1999; Sara, 2009). LCns
provide the sole noradrenergic innervation for cerebral, cerebel-
lar, and hippocampal cortices (Pickel et al., 1974; Morrison et al.,
1978). Delivered primarily through varicosities, cortical nor-
adrenaline from LCns not only promotes increased neuronal ac-
tivity, but coordinates increased energy production in adjacent
astrocytes and reduced microglial inflammatory responses
(ODonnell et al., 2012). Injury to LCns accelerates neurodegen-
eration in animal models of Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases
(Nishi et al., 1991; Marien et al., 1993; Rey et al., 2012). In the
present study, we found that Ext Wake resulted in a loss of LCns
and strong nuclear labeling of cleaved caspase in a subset of the
remaining LCns. Thus, Ext Wake results in substantive LCn in-
jury. While it is difficult to discern whether the loss of LCns and
injury of this magnitude are sufficient to result in cognitive im-
pairments, we propose that repeated occurrences of Ext Wake (as
is commonly observed in night shift workers) could result in a
cumulative loss of LCns that would be sufficient to influence
cognition and neurodegenerative processes, in predisposed indi-
viduals, as changes in SirT3, FoxO3a, and O
2
neurons in LC nucleus with nuclear c-fos labeling for conditions Rest (light gray) and Sh Wake (black) in both SirT3wt
and SirT3
/
mice. Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA. ***p 0.001. G, Representative images of c-fos in the LC. Shown are confocal images 1 mthick to delineate nuclear labeling of
c-fos (red) within TH (green)-labeled LCns.
4428 J. Neurosci., March 19, 2014 34(12):4418 4431 Zhang et al. SirT3 in Sleep Loss
contribute to neuronal demise (McMurray, 2000). In a model of
excitotoxicity, the severity of neuritic beading predicts neuronal
loss (Takeuchi et al., 2005). Alonger observational period may be
necessary to appreciate Ext Wake-induced neuronal loss in
SirT3
/
mice.
Sleep deprivation is an important tool with which to gain
insight into the functions and neurobiology of sleep, but this
approach can also be a source of stress in laboratory animals,
where stress may confound the interpretation of results. Placing
animals atop small platforms from which they fall upon sleeping
can increase plasma corticosterone levels twofold (Machado et
al., 2013), as can repeatedly tapping on cages and brushing qui-
escent animals within their own cage (Tobler et al., 1983). In the
present study, efforts were made to minimize stress by allowing
mice spontaneous wakefulness in an enriched environment
equipped with climbing objects, novel nesting materials, and lit-
termates. Overall, we observed no significant increase in plasma
corticosterone levels for either Shor Ext Wake. Moreover, plasma
levels in Ext Wake tended to be lower than those in Sh Wake, and
yet injury was observed only in mice exposed to Ext Wake. Thus,
it is unlikely that the sleep loss injury effects observed in LCns can
be attributed to stress.
Remarkably, we observed that endogenous SirT3 is essential
for maintaining redox homeostasis inLCns across a period of just
several hours of wakefulness within the habitual sleeping period.
The necessity of SirT3 to maintain redox homeostasis supports
the concept that short-term sleep loss is a metabolic stressor for
LCns, and that mitochondria contribute to the homeostatic re-
sponse to sleep loss. By upregulating FoxO3a, PGC-1, and an-
tioxidant enzymes, this homeostatic response is expected to
render LCns more resistant to metabolic disturbances. The
mechanisms by which SirT3 results in increased FoxO3a, PGC-
1, SOD2, and catalase levels are not known. The nuclear trans-
location of FoxO3a and transcriptional upregulation of
antioxidant enzymes support a SirT3-regulated mitochondria-
to-nucleus communication in response to Sh Wake. An alterna-
tive explanation for SirT3-mediated changes in protein levels
may involve effects on protein stability where deacetylation pro-
motes ubiquitination and, thus, protein clearance (Caron et al.,
2005). Mitochondrially localized SirT3, however, should not af-
fect catalase, NAMPT, or PGC-1 stability, and cytosolic protein
acetylation was not changed in response to Sh Wake. Thus, a
more likely source of Sh Wake antioxidants is SirT3-dependent
Foxo3a activation and/or upregulation of PGC-1.
While it may be surprising that 3 h of wakefulness would
require an antioxidant response to offset oxidative stress, it is
important to remember that LCns, and other wake-active neu-
rons, have great metabolic demands across wakefulness. Norad-
renergic LCns demonstrate continuous activity throughout
wakefulness, particularly exploratory wakefulness. In support,
nuclear c-fos translocation, an index marker of neuronal activity,
is increased markedly in LCns of rats exposed to a novel environ-
ment (Gompf et al., 2010), as was observed in our SirT3wt mice.
In NREM sleep, LC activity declines significantly, and LCn activ-
ity approaches complete quiescence in REM sleep (Takahashi et
al., 2010). Increased synaptic activity in wakefulness and in-
creased synthesis, packaging, and transport of large amounts of
noradrenaline and cotransmitters to cortices require increased
ATP production all along neurites, which, in turn, will increase
O
2
are consid-
ered to be poly(ADP)-ribosyl polymerases (PARPs) and cADP-
ribose synthases (CD38, CD157). In metabolically active cells, a
substantial fraction of cellular NAD
levels at
baseline (equivalent to wild-type mice exposed to extended sleep
loss), and levels of NAD