EFFECT OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION ON WOUND HEALING IN MICE

Ethem GELIR*º, Lamia Pinar YANIÇOGLU*, Mitat KOZ*, Sibel DINÇER*

* Gazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physiology, Ankara, TURKEY
°Corresponding Author

Summary:
In current literature there is little information about how sleep or sleep deprivation affects wound healing.With this study, we aimed to determine the effects of sleep and sleep deprivation on wound healing and wished our results to be considered in clinical practice.In this study, we used 4 week-old male mice as experimental animals and divided them into experimental and control groups. During the experiments, the animals were housed individually under the same standard conditions. We made full-thickness skin incisions on the dorsum of both groups of mice. The control group mice were allowed to have their normal sleep, while the mice in the experimental group were kept awake continuously for five days using a special apparatus designed in our laboratory. At the end of the 5th day, we sacrificed the mice by administering an overdose of thiopental sodium and tested the wound tensile strength with a computerized tensiometer and the skin thickness of wound edges by compass. We found that wound tensile strength and skin thickness of sleep-deprived group were less than that of controls. According to our data, sleep deprivation retarted wound healing. In addition we found a considerable weight loss in the sleep-deprived group in accord with the literature.

Key words:
Sleep Deprivation, Wound Healing, Mouse, Tensile Strength.