Synchronization of the mammalian central and peripheral circadian clocks
2017
The circadian clock is an endogenous, self-sustained biological
rhythm. Different organisms possess different period of the circadian
clock, ranging from 20 to 28 h. Synchronizations of the circadian
clock contribute to the organisms’ fitness. This synchrony
refers not only to the synchronization between the body clock and
the environment, but also to that between the central and peripheral
clocks. The synchronization is a process that the organism’s
circadian clock is reset by the outside environment. Being synchronized
often makes the organism oscillate in a period of 24 h, that
of the earth’s rotation. More importantly, being synchronized
changes the phase of the organism’s clock, for example activity
onset, to a stable phase relationship to the environmental time cues,
like the sunrise. Pittendrigh had raised the phase response curve
(PRC) model to explain how light synchronizes the circadian clock
by phase shifting the clock. His PRC model successfully predicts entrainment
on the basis of period changes. Light pulse is considered as the most
effective zeitgeber that can synchronize an organism’s circadian
clock. Phase response curves show distinct similarities from diverse
organisms, including both diurnal and nocturnal animals. Better understanding
on these synchronizations are built on recent advances in the following
aspects, the molecular feedback loops, the novel photoreceptor melanopsin
and its expressing cells, and the hierarchical structures constituting
the mammalian clock system. This review summarizes recent progresses
on topics of the synchronizations of both the body clock and the environment,
and the central and peripheral clocks. It discusses how light and
food cues mediate the synchronization of the clock system, followed
with introducing main human disorders in which desynchronized body
clocks are involved. Light pulse transmits the environmental time
cues to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) through the retino-hypothalamic
tract (RHT). SCN is located in the hypothalamus and serves as the
central oscillator in mammals. Food is another important zeitgeber
that synchronizes the circadian clock. Feeding behavior passes the
timing information to the central oscillator, SCN, by taking advantages
of the circulating hormones and metabolites. After receiving information
from either light or food, SCN integrates the information and passes
them along to peripheral clocks that locate in different organs, finally
reaching to a coherent circadian system for the entire multicellular
organism. Therefore, this review offers basic knowledge to further
researches on the clock synchronization, and expects people understand
that keeping our body clocks in synchrony is important to our health.
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