beta-endorphin and Sleep-Wake-Disorders

Treatment of fibromyalgia includes various forms of therapy--physical, behavioral, psychological, and pharmacologic. No drug therapy has proved uniformly successful, but some drugs provide temporary relief from pain. After an initial therapy program has been established, patients can assume the major responsibility for management. Research studies aimed at defining the cause of fibromyalgia have linked it to sleep disorders, neurogenic mediators, immune mechanisms, muscle disease, and psychological disturbances.

Topics: beta-Endorphin; Brain; Endorphins; Fibromyalgia; Humans; Serotonin; Sleep Wake Disorders; Tryptophan

Sleep-wake disturbances and stress hyper-responsiveness have been observed in human neonates, children and adolescents who were exposed to alcohol during the prenatal period. Using the laboratory rat as an animal model, we investigated whether fetal ethanol exposure during gestational days 10-21 affects the circadian function of the stress-axis regulatory beta-endorphin neurons in the hypothalamus. Fetal ethanol-exposed rats showed abnormality in the circadian expression of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA encoding the peptide beta-endorphin in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus during the adult period. These rats also showed altered circadian expression of the clock governing Period genes rPer1, rPer2 and rPer3, in the arcuate nucleus, and rPer1 and rPer 2 mRNA levels in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Laser captured microdissection analysis identified constitutive expression of rPer1, rPer2 and rPer3 genes in beta-endorphin-containing neurons. These data suggest for the first time that fetal exposure to ethanol significantly alters the clock mechanisms governing the circadian function of beta-endorphin neurons.

Topics: Alcohol-Induced Disorders, Nervous System; Animals; Animals, Newborn; beta-Endorphin; Cell Cycle Proteins; Central Nervous System Depressants; Chronobiology Disorders; Disease Models, Animal; Ethanol; Female; Gene Expression Regulation; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; Hypothalamus; Male; Neurons; Nuclear Proteins; Period Circadian Proteins; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Pro-Opiomelanocortin; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; RNA, Messenger; Sleep Wake Disorders; Stress, Physiological