PROMOTION OF SLEEP BY PROSTAGLANDIN D-2 IN RATS MADE INSOMNIAC BY PRETREATMENT WITH PARA-CHLOROPHENYLALANINE

The correlation between the somnogenic effect of prostaglandin (PG) D-2 and the serotoninergic system was examined in freely-moving rats (n = 64) by use of a continuous infusion method. Rats pretreated with para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA: 450 mg/kg body weight, i.p.) or non-PCPA-pretreated rats received infusion of PGD(2), serotonin, or its direct precursor, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP), into their third cerebral ventricle at a rate of 100 pmol/0.2 mu l/min between 11:00 and 17:00 h. In the PCPA-pretreated insomniac rats, PGD(2) infusion resulted in an immediate increase in slow-wave sleep (SWS) and an increase with a 2-h latency in paradoxical sleep (PS). The total amounts of SWS and PS during the PGD(2)-infusion period were 151% and 154% of the respective control values. These results indicate that inhibition of the biosynthesis of serotonin and 5HTP by PCPA marginally affects the sleep-promoting effect of PGD(2). The transient sleep restoration produced by 5HTP infusion into PCPA-pretreated rats was hardly affected by the simultaneous infusion (200 pmol/0.2 mu l/min; 07:00-17:00 h) of diclofenac sodium, an inhibitor of cyclo-oxygenase, suggesting that PGD(2) production is not critically involved in the sleep restoration by 5HTP. The sleep-promoting property of PGD(2) is thus probably independent of the serotoninergic modulation of sleep-wake activity.