Highly read on jneurosci.org in October

Sleep seems to wake up a type of brain cell that maintains healthy neuron signalling.

Chiara Cirelli and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison analysed support cells called oligodendrocytes that wrap around neurons and protect them with a specialized sheath that helps their signals to travel faster.

They collected oligodendrocytes and their precursor cells from mice after the animals had experienced a few hours of sleep or wakefulness and then profiled the expression of newly transcribed genes. Genes that were most active during wakefulness were involved in cell differentiation and death. By contrast, genes that were expressed during sleep promoted cell growth and the production of protective sheaths.

Further experiments showed that the rate of growth of oligodendrocyte precursor cells doubles during sleep, and that cell production increased when mice spent more time in the stage of sleep associated with dreaming.

J. Neurosci. 33, 14288–14300 (2013)