Monday, June 20, 2016

See the Vortex

Here it is:
Hypocretin/orexin loss changes the hypothalamic immune response.

The authors used mice that produce less orexin, and regular lab mice as controls.
Then they injected them with endotoxin.  Endotoxin is a product of gram negative bacteria called Lipopolysaccharide  (LPS).

-Orexin expression was inhibited after LPS injection in both types of mice, but orexin expression  was completely abolished in orexin deficient mice.

-It also raised histamine production in the deficient mice, so although they slept more at first, they did recover their activity levels as quickly as the others.

Here's the twist:
Long term endotoxin exposure kills orexin cells.
Here's the takeaway:

Bacterial Infection shuts down orexin production AND it masks it's effects,  and left unaddressed it will kill the cells and compound this pathology.

See the center of the gaping black hole in your world.