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BENJAVISA
As people go through phases of deep sleep, when neuronal activity patterns form slow waves across the brain, pulses of cerebrospinal fluid bathe the brain, possibly as a means of taking out molecular trash. Critical to the cleaning process is the water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4), which is present in the membranes of astrocytes, according to experiments in rodents. AQP4 is necessary for the flow of CSF through the brain as it travels via a series of lymph-like vessels that make up the glymphatic system and clears waste from the brain.
In a paper published May 5 in PLOS Biology, researchers connect the dots between AQP4 and sleep in people. They showed that individuals with a set of eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in AQP4 have more slow wave energy as they sleep, which is characteristic of deep states of slumber, than those without the variants. And ...
