Chronic obstructive sleep apnea: insulin signaling pathways and genesis of diabetes

Abstract

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) usually have a highly complex condition, with associated comorbidities, such assuch as hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. However, it is still unclear the direct cause and consequence relationship of OSAwith each one of these comorbidities, since there are innumerous factors involved in each case. Given this, we decided to isolate theTwo distinct groups, consisting of 6 rats each, will be separated on the basis of a primary character.Two distinct groups, consisting of 6 rats each, will be separated based on a primary character: the presence or absence of obstructive sleep apneas. A tracheal balloon contained in a Teflon tube will be used to induce sleep apnea.Teflon tube will be used to induce apneas without causing tracheal pain in the conscious rat. Both groups will undergo the surgicalBoth groups will go through the surgical process of tracheal balloon implantation, but the control group will not go through the apneic process. The apneic group, 10 days after balloonthe balloon implantation, will undergo apneas for 8 h/day, 14 s every 2 min, for 7 days. At the end of the apnea period, both groupsgroups will undergo the glucose tolerance test and samples of skeletal muscle, liver, encephalon, hypothalamusadipose tissue, kidneys and heart. These samples will be Western blotted to determine the level of expression of key components of the insulin pathway, and to determine the level of expression ofessential components of the insulin pathway, such as IR, IRS-1, IRS-2, PI3K and AKT. In addition, we will perform the extraction of the islets ofLangerhans, in order to evaluate insulin secretion.