Muscle tone suppression

Lai, Y. Y. Siegel, J. M. (1991). Pontomedullary glutamate receptors mediating locomotion and muscle tone suppression. J. Neurosci. 11, 2931-7. 

He also proved that REM sleep was organized by the brain stem, including this reticular formation. By discovering the active suppression of muscle tone that invariably accompanies REM sleep,... 

Jouvet s most radical and definitive experiments supported this idea. When he isolated the brain stem below the level of the junction of the two areas of the brain known as the pons and the midbrain and, even when he removed all of the brain above this level, he could still observe the periodic suppression of muscle tone, and occasional eye and body movements, including the rhythmic stepping that would be used in real locomotion by a normal cat during waking. In other words, one of the key formal features of human dreaming, the sense of continuous motion, may arise at the very low level of parts of the brain stem that generate motor patterns. In any case, such generators are present in the brain stem and are activated in REM. 

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by NO synthase in the endothelium is important in the maintenance of vascular tone it suppresses the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, adhesion molecules, and MCP-1. It also inhibits platelet adhesion, maintains the integrity of the arterial wall, and acts as an antioxidant. Vitamin E can reduce the inhibition of NO synthase by reactive oxygen species, thus maintaining NO production, either through its antioxidant activity or perhaps by suppressing PKC activity in smooth muscle. 

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