Science tells us that a lot of good things happen in our brains while we sleep learning and memories are consolidated and waste is removed, among other things. New research shows for the first time that important immune cells called microglia which play an important role in reorganising the connections between nerve cells, fighting infections, and repairing damage are also primarily active while we sleep.
The findings, which were conducted in mice and appear in the journal Nature Neuroscience, have implications for brain plasticity, diseases like autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, which arise when the brain’s networks are not maintained properly, and the ability of the brain to fight off infection and repair the damage following a stroke or other traumatic injury.
“It has largely been assumed that the dynamic movement of microglial processes is not sensitive to the behavioral state of the animal”, said Ania Majewska, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center’s (URMC) Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience and lead author of the study. “This research shows that the signals in our brain that modulate the sleep and awake state also act as a switch that turns the immune system off and on.”
Microglia serve as the brain’s first responders, patrolling the brain and spinal cord and springing into action to stamp out infections or gobble up debris from dead cell tissue.
