circadian rhythm tagged posts

Our bodies follow a natural 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm that influences everything from sleep to metabolism. While scientists have long known that certain core circadian clock genes help regulate these rhythms, a new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that there is an additional layer of regulation—diet interacts with an individual’s genetic makeup, influencing daily patterns of gene activity in the liver, especially those related to fat metabolism.

These findings, published in Cell Metabolism, reveal a previously underappreciated temporal aspect of the interactions between genetics and the environment in regulating lipid metabolism, with implications for individual variat...

People who work the nightshift or odd hours and eat at irregular times are more prone to weight gain and diabetes, likely due to eating patterns not timed with natural daylight and when people typically eat. But is it possible to stave off the ill effects of eating at these “unusual” times despite it not being biologically preferable?

A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania says “yes,” and sheds light on how the body knows when to eat. The study, published in Science, explains how researchers discovered a connection between the liver’s internal clock and feeding centers in the brain.

The team’s research shows that the liver sends signals to the brain via the vagus nerve, letting the brain know if eating...

The sites where our bodies come into contact with the outside world—via skin, the surface of the eye, inside the mouth, the lining of the intestine and the urinary tract, for example—are known as barrier tissues.

Helping to defend those tissues are innate lymphoid cells, or ILCs, which when faced with a threat, stimulate proteins called cytokines that further activate the immune system and control the intestinal microbiome.

These cells naturally diminish with aging or can be depleted by certain medical conditions.

ILCs are made inside bone marrow and circulate in the blood. But how are they activated to mobilize and travel to their target sites to replenish the depleted pool of tissue ILCs?

A Michigan Medi...

Bmal1/Clock complex activates transcription of genes containing E-box sequences in their promoters. Among these are Per1/2 and Cry1/2, which following dimerization can inhibit the activity of the Bmal1/Clock complex. Rev-Erb and Ror provide an additional stabilizing loop to fine-tune the expression of Bmal1. In addition to E-boxes, other clock regulatory elements (such as ROREs and D-boxes) are commonly found in the promoters of CCGs.

Disruptions of daily rhythms of the body’s master internal clock provide insight into the role of the brain’s internal time keeping system in the development of mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder MDD, which have been associated with disturbed daily (circadian) rhythms...