Skin as a window to body-clock time.
Skin as a window to body-clock time.
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皮肤是生物钟时间的窗口。
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1817419115
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发表时间：
2018
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Andersen,Bogi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Plikus,MaksimV;Andersen,Bogi
The nascent field of circadian medicine posits that timing of medical interventions, including the administration of drugs and surgical procedures, can be important for maximum therapeutic efficacy and minimum side effects. However, with today’s chaotic work schedules and light pollution, the phase of the body clock—the circadian time—varies between individuals within the same geographical time zone. Therefore, to fully deliver on its promise, the field needs practical and accurate diagnostic methods to determine the phase of an individual’s internal clock. In PNAS, Wu et al.(1) make two advances toward this goal by suggesting that (i) skin, an easily accessed tissue, is an ideal sample source for determining the phase of the body clock, and (ii) a single sample measuring the expression of 29 circadian biomarker genes may be sufficient to determine an individual’s body-clock phase. In an independent study in Journal of Clinical Investigation, Wittenbrink et al.(2) suggest that the same goal can be achieved with a single measurement of circadian biomarker genes in monocytes isolated from blood. Earth’s rotation around its axis creates the diverse environments of day and night. In response, organisms, from simple bacteria to humans, have evolved an intrinsic, autonomous timing system: the circadian (Latin for “around the day”) clock—a system thought to provide a survival advantage. In humans, the circadian clock facilitates the anticipation of, and adaptation to, the daytime environment of activity and feeding and the nighttime environment of sleep and fasting. Therefore, it is unsurprising that at an organismal level, the circadian clock is an important regulator of activity, sleep, and metabolism (3). Initially, it was thought that only the central clock (neurons comprising the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus) contained the timing mechanisms and that the clock’s effect on different organs was mediated indirectly by hormones and neurons. However, research since the 1990s revealed that nearly all cells of the body contain the same timing mechanism (4) and that in each organ, up to 20% of the transcriptome exhibits diurnal
