SLEEP - Diurnal Fluctuation in Histidine Decarboxylase Expression, the Rate Limiting Enzyme for Histamine Production, and Its Disorder in Neurodegenerative Diseases

VOLUME 35, ISSUE 05

SHORT NOTE
Diurnal Fluctuation in Histidine Decarboxylase Expression, the Rate Limiting Enzyme for Histamine Production, and Its Disorder in Neurodegenerative Diseases

http://dx.doi.org/10.5665/sleep.1838

Ling Shan, MsC¹^,²; Michel A. Hofman, PhD²; Daniel J. van Wamelen, MD²^,³; Eus J.W. Van Someren, PhD²^,⁴; Ai-Min Bao, MD, PhD¹; F. Swaab Dick, MD, PhD²

¹Department of Neurobiology, Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Ministry of Health of China, Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China; ²Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ³Department of Neurology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; ⁴Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research (CNCR), Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Study Objectives:

Neuronal histamine shows diurnal rhythms in rodents and plays a major role in the maintenance of vigilance. No data are available on its diurnal fluctuation in humans, either in health or in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson disease (PD), Alzheimer disease (AD), or Huntington disease (HD), all of which are characterized by sleep-wake disturbances.

Design:

Quantitative in situ hybridization was used to study the mRNA expression of histidine decarboxylase (HDC), the key enzyme of histamine production in the tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN) in postmortem human hypothalamic tissue, obtained from 33 controls and 31 patients with a neurodegenerative disease—PD (n = 15), AD (n = 9), and HD (n = 8)—and covering the full 24-h cycle with respect to clock time of death.

Results:

HDC-mRNA levels in controls were found to be significantly higher during the daytime than at night (e.g., 08:01-20:00 versus 20:01-08:00, P = 0.004). This day-night fluctuation was markedly different in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

Conclusion:

The diurnal fluctuation of HDC-mRNA expression in human TMN supports a role for neuronal histamine in regulating day-night rhythms. Future studies should investigate histamine rhythm abnormalities in neurodegenerative disorders.

Citation:

Shan L; Hofman MA; van Wamelen DJ; Van Someren EJW; Bao AM; Swaab DF. Diurnal fluctuation in histidine decarboxylase expression, the rate limiting enzyme for histamine production, and its disorder in neurodegenerative diseases. SLEEP 2012;35(5):713-715.