Effects of Electrical Automatic Massage of Whole Body at Bedtime on Sleep and Fatigue

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of electrical automatic massage (EAM) at bedtime on sleep quality and fatigue. METHODS: We recruited consecutively 35 adults (23 male, 48.7±8.07 y) who complained of poor sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index≥5) and fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale≥4). This is a cross over study including two consecutive sleep studies with or without EAM. The EAM session includes preset ‘sleep mode’, which last 30 minutes covering whole body. Participants were seated in the commercially available massage chair (REX-L®) under the calm and dim light condition immediately before polysomnography. Participants reported perceived sleep latency, sleep duration, and fatigue using visual analogue scale following morning. RESULTS: Polysomnography parameters and subjective reports were compared between sleep with EAM and sleep without EAM. Paired comparison on average revealed sleep structure improvement N1 (13.6→10.9%) and N2 sleep (59.3→57.2%) decreased, and N3 sleep increased (3.0→6.4%), as well as sleep latency (10.3→5.6 min). Improvement in arousal index (17.1→13.0/h) and apnea-hypopnea index (9.1→7.0/h) were also seen following sleep after EAM. Sleep efficiency and total sleep time were not changed by EAM. Participants subjective reports also indicated better sleep on EAM; more lengthened sleep (306→330 minutes) and more relieved fatigue significantly after EAM. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that muscle relaxation through EAM at bedtime may improve the sleep and alleviate fatigue. It suggests that EAM may be one of alternatives to promote sleep quality. Further studies in a clinical setting are warranted to support this finding.

Dynamic profiles of Oct-4, Cdx-2 and acetylated H4K5 in in-vivo-derived rabbit embryos.

This study documents the spatial and temporal distribution of Oct-4, Cdx-2 and acetylated H4K5 (H4K5ac) by immunocytochemistry staining using in-vivo-derived rabbit embryos at different stages: day-3 compact morulae, day-4 early blastocysts, day-4 expanded blastocysts, day-5 blastocysts, day-6 blastocysts and day-7 blastocysts. The Oct-4 signal was stronger in the inner cell mass (ICM)/epiblast cells than in the trophectoderm (TE) cells in all blastocyst stages except day-4 expanded blastocysts, where the signal was similarly weak in both the ICM and TE cells. The Cdx-2 signal was first detected in a small number of TE cells of day-4 early blastocysts, and became evident in the TE cells exclusively afterwards. A consistently strong H4K5ac signal was observed in the TE cells in all blastocyst stages examined. In particular, this signal was stronger in the TE than in the ICM cells in day-4 early blastocysts, day-4 expanded blastocysts and day-5 blastocysts. Double staining of H4K5ac with either Oct-4 or Cdx-2 on embryos at different blastocyst stages confirmed these findings. This work suggests that day 4 is a critical timing for lineage formation in rabbit embryos. A combination of Oct-4, Cdx-2 and H4K5ac can be used as biomarkers to identify different lineage cells in rabbit blastocysts.

Spatial and temporal distribution of Oct-4 and acetylated H4K5 in rabbit embryos.

Rabbit is a unique species to study human embryology; however, there are limited reports on the key transcription factors and epigenetic events of rabbit embryos. This study examined the Oct-4 and acetylated H4K5 (H4K5ac) patterns in rabbit embryos using immunochemistry staining. The average intensity of the Oct-4 signal in the nuclei of the whole embryo spiked upon fertilization, then decreased until the 8-cell stage and increased afterwards until the compact morula (CM) stage. It decreased thereafter from the CM stage to the early blastocyst (EB) stage, with a minimum at the expanded blastocyst (EXPB) stage and came back to a level similar to that of the CM-stage embryos in the hatching blastocysts (HB). The Oct-4 signal was observed in both the inner cell mass (ICM) and the trophectoderm (TE) cells of blastocysts. The average H4K5ac signal intensity of the whole embryo increased upon fertilization, started to decrease at the 4-cell stage, reached a minimum at the 8-cell stage, increased again at the EXPB stage and peaked at the HB stage. While TE cells maintained similar levels of H4K5ac throughout the blastocyst stages, ICM cells of HB showed higher levels of H4K5ac than those of EB and EXPB. Understanding key genetic and epigenetic events during early embryo development will help to identify factors contributing to embryo losses and consequently improve embryo survival rates. As a preferred laboratory species for many human disease studies such as atherosclerosis, rabbit is also a pioneer species in the development of several embryo biotechnologies, such as IVF, transgenesis, animal cloning, embryo cryopreservation and embryonic stem cells. However, there are limited reports on key transcription factors and epigenetic events of rabbit embryos. In the present study, we documented the temporal and spatial distribution of Oct-4 protein and H4K5 acetylation during early embryo development using the immunostaining approach. We also compared the patterns of these two important biomarkers between the inner cell mass (ICM) and the trophectoderm (TE) cells in blastocyst-stage embryos. Our findings suggest that a combination of Oct-4, H4K5ac and possibly other biomarkers such as Cdx-2 is needed to accurately identify different lineages of cells in morula and blastocyst stage rabbit embryos. Importantly, we revealed a novel wave of Oct-4 intensity change in the ICM cells of rabbit blastocysts. The signal was high at the early blastocyst stage, reached a minimum at the expanded blastocyst stage and returned to a high level at the hatching blastocyst stage. We hypothesize that the signal may have reflected the regulation of Oct-4 through enhancer switching and therefore may be related to cell lineage formation in rabbit embryos. These findings enrich our understanding on key genetic and epigenetic programming events during early embryo development in rabbits.

Follicular oocytes better support development in rabbit cloning than oviductal oocytes.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of rabbit oocytes collected from ovaries or oviducts on the developmental potential of nuclear transplant embryos. Donor nuclei were obtained from adult skin fibroblasts, cumulus cells, and embryonic blastomeres. Rabbit oocytes were flushed from the oviducts (oviductal oocytes) or aspirated from the ovaries (follicular oocytes) of superovulated does at 10, 11, or 12 h post-hCG injection. The majority of collected oocytes were still attached to the sites of ovulation on the ovaries. We found that follicular oocytes had a significantly higher rate of fusion with nuclear donor cells than oviductal oocytes. There was no difference in the cleavage rate between follicular and oviductal groups, but morula and blastocyst development was significantly higher in the follicular group than in the oviductal group. Two live clones were produced in follicular group using blastomere and cumulus nuclear donors, whereas one live clone was produced in the oviductal group using a cumulus nuclear donor. These results demonstrate that cloned rabbit embryos derived from follicular oocytes have better developmental competence than those derived from oviductal oocytes.