Electronic Poster | Session 2

075 – Short-term sleep deprivation in mice induces B cell migration to the brain compartment

Ben Korin (1, 2) – Shimrit Avraham (3) – Hilla Azulay-Debby (1, 2) – Dorit Farfara (1, 2) – Fahed Hakim (5, 6) – Asya Rolls (1, 2, 4)
Department of Neuroscience (1) – Department of Immunology (2) – Department of Cell Biology and Cancer Science, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel (3) – Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel (4) – Pediatric Pulmonary Unit, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel (5) – Cancer Research Center, EMMS Hospital, Nazareth, Israel (6)

Increasing evidence highlight the involvement of immune cells in brain activity and its dysfunction. The brain’s immune compartment is a dynamic ensemble of cells that can fluctuate even in naïve animals. However, the dynamics and factors that can affect the composition of immune cells in the naïve brain are largely unknown. Here we examine whether acute sleep deprivation can affect the brain’s immune compartment (parenchyma, meninges and choroid plexus). Using high-dimensional mass cytometry analysis we broadly characterize the effects of short-term sleep deprivation on the immune composition in the mouse brain. We find that after 6 hours of sleep deprivation there is a significant increase in the abundance of B cells in the brain compartment. This effect can be accounted for, at least in part, by the elevated expression of the migration-related receptor, CXCR5, on B cells and its ligand, cxcl13, in the meninges following sleep deprivation. Thus, our study reveals that short-term sleep deprivation affects the brain’s immune compartment, offering a new insight into how sleep disorders can affect brain function and potentially contribute to neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.