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Sleep & circadian

Glymphatic system

DEGlymphatisches System

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The glymphatic system, described by Iliff, Nedergaard and colleagues in 2012, is the brain's waste-clearance pathway, in which cerebrospinal fluid flows along perivascular spaces, exchanges with interstitial fluid, and removes metabolic byproducts such as beta-amyloid and tau. Activity increases substantially during sleep (and under anaesthesia in animal models), when the interstitial space expands by roughly 60 percent (Xie et al., 2013). Impaired glymphatic clearance is implicated in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, making sleep a key intervention point for brain longevity.

Sources

  1. Xie L, Kang H, Xu Q et al.. (2013). Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain. *Science*doi:10.1126/science.1241224
  2. Iliff JJ, Wang M, Liao Y, Plogg BA, Peng W, Gundersen GA, Benveniste H, Vates GE, Deane R, Goldman SA, Nagelhus EA, Nedergaard M. (2012). A paravascular pathway facilitates CSF flow through the brain parenchyma and the clearance of interstitial solutes, including amyloid β. *Science Translational Medicine*doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3003748