Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a respiratory disorder characterized by repeated episodes of upper airway obstruction respiratory cessation during sleep, resulting in severe hypoxia interspersed with reoxgenation [1] or intermittent hypoxia (IH). This clinical respiratory disorder nowadays is recognized as a significant and highly prevalent public health problem that can lead to more serious cardiovascular and neurocognitive morbidities in all age groups (Chang and Chae 2010). Neurocognitive impairments, particularly memory and learning impairment are increasingly observed in the patients who are suffering from OSA and exposed to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) particularly in young children. Many previous studies on experimental animals showed that these neurocognitive deficits are strictly associated with regional brain damages [4–6], particularly in the hippocampus with apoptosis probably mediated by overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under CIH condition shown [7, 8]. In addition, increased systemic levels of oxidative stress and inflammation markers have been recognized in patients suffering from OSA (Gody et al., 2009). In agreement with this concept, ROS scavengers and pharmacological blockade of oxidative stress and inflammation could alleviate IH-induced apoptosis and spatial memory deficits in experimental animals [9–11]. …show more content…
Recent studies showed that NADPH-oxidase enzyme is contributing in cognitive deficits induced by exposure to CIH (Nair et al., 2011), the fact that attracted the attention toward this enzyme as an indicator of cognitive deterioration in animal models of