Objective To analyze the influence of sleep deprivation on expression of serotonin receptor 1A(5-HT1A) and dopanine-2 receptor (D2R) gene and to explore the differences between different neurotransmitter pathways involved in sleep regulation through measuring the gene expression of 5-HT1A and D2R in regions of hippocampus,hypothalamus and striatum with different sleep deprivation models.Methods Sleep deprivation was performed to male SD rats of 10-week-old for 24 hours,48 hours and 72 hours respectively as the experimental group and a control group was taken for comparison.The expressions of 5-HT1A and D2R gene in regions of hippocampus,hypothalamus and striatum were detected through RT-PCR technique to analyze the influence of sleep deprivation on gene expression in different regions.Results Sleep deprivation had a significant effect on the gene expression of 5-HT1A in regions of hippocampus and striatum(F=56.203,P＜0.01 ; F=77.288,P＜0.01).The three experimental groups were all superior to the control group and the difference was of statistic significance(P＜0.05).In the hippocampus region,the expression quantity of the 72 hours group(0.618±0.054) was superior to that of the 24 hours group and of the 48 hours group(24 hours:0.404±0.023,P＜0.01 ;48 hours:0.455±0.042.P＜0.05).In the striatum region,the differences between the 24 hours group(0.413±0.033),the 48 hours group(0.464±0.034)and the 72 hours group(0.610±0.040) were all of statistic significance(all P＜0.05).Sleep deprivation had a significant effect on the expression of D2R gene in regions of hippocampus and striatum(F=74.708,P＜0.01 ; F=80.687,P＜0.01).The expression quantity of the three experimental groups in regions of hippocampus (24 hours:0.386±0.027,48 hours:0.318±0.014,72 hours:0.250±0.010) and striatum(24 hours:0.396±0.013,48 hours:0.349±0.017,72 hours:0.260±0.013) were all inferior to the control group.The differences were of statistic significance (all P＜0.05).There was a negative correlation between the gene expressions of 5-HT1A and D2R of rats of the three experience groups(all P＜0.05).Conclusion For the sleep deprivation rats,the gene expression of 5-HT1A rises while that of D2R falls in regions of hippocampus,hypothalamus,and there is a negative correlation between the expressions of the two genes.