When you stay up late, your skin and your liver know everything.

Two back-to-back papers in the latest issue of the leading academic journal Cell confirm that the biological clock that senses changes in day and night light and regulates metabolism and functions is actually spread throughout the bodyIn other words, even your liver and your skin can detect that you're turning upside down day and night when you're still staring at your computer screen or phone late at nightThese disturbed organs have the potential to make the body more prone to health problemsthe "master clock" of the human biological clock is located in the hypothalamus of the brain, which senses changes in light day and night within 24 hours, regulating the physiological function of the whole bodyHowever, outside the central nervous system, scientists have also found over the past two decades that peripheral organs, such as skin and internal organs, also have biological clocks, and that some genes in the cells can show fluctuations in expression levels within 24 hoursbut is the peripheral clock completely at the main clock's order to synchronize, or is it a separate function? To find experimental evidence, scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona, Spain, teamed up to try to get the biological clocks of the two organs to start independentlyresearchers first built a particular class of mice that lacked an important gene, Bmal1At the cellular level of the biological clock, this is a key transcription factor that regulates the expression of many genes associated with circadian rhythmsAs a result, the whole body of the various tissues lack of BMAL1 animals, biological clocks are stopped, eating and sleep is not regular, accordingly they grow thin, weak, and premature agingon this basis, the scientists restored the expression of BMAL1 in the liver and skin, respectivelyThen, the mice with normal biological clocks, mice that lacked the biological clock all over the body, and mice with individual organs restored biological clocks were compared togethermice with full-body biological clock defects and mice with only skin biological clocks (Photo: Cell)when the animals were in a standard 12-hour day and 12 hours of night, the researchers tested their gene expressionIt was not thought that mice with only the skin or liver had a biological clock, and despite the lack of master clock regulation, a portion of the genes in the corresponding tissue cells could change as normal, with changes in expression levels as light changes, but the degree of fluctuations decreasednot only, the analysis of metabolites showed that under the independent operation of the liver bioclock, the liver also performs some of its key metabolic functions on its ownFor example, the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids, glycogen conversionNearly one-half of the 200 metabolites in the liver with rhythmic changes in normal mice were also retained in mice with only liver circadian clocks the liver's autobiethal metabolism retains some of the function of circadian rhythms (Photo: Cell) mice that retain the biological clock from the skin, the researchers observed that functions such as cell renewal of the epidermis were retained under the action of the biological clock and that premature skin aging slowed However, when the researchers kept the mice in a 24-hour, continuous dark environment, the biological clock sits on the skin and liver stopped working as the light changed In other words, the skin and liver's biological clocks can detect changes in light, for some mechanism that is not yet clear! liver biological clock is regulated by changes in light around the clock, and the biological clock stops in the dark environment (Photo: Cell) "We're surprised by the results!" "No one thought that the liver and skin could be directly regulated by light, " said Professor Sassone-Corsi of the UCI, one of the authors of the communication With the help of this mouse model, the international team plans to explore the biological clocks of other organs step by step and see how different organs communicate, "to crack the metabolic pathways that control circadian rhythms, aging processes, and overall health." many previous studies of circadian rhythms have shown that sleep deprivation, diet, exercise and other factors adjust the body's biological clock "Modern lifestyles can easily disrupt people's normal physiological rhythms, causing depression, allergies, premature aging, cancer and other health problems Professor Sassone-Corsi concluded by adding, "Further mouse experiments may help us find a way to make the body 'less dysfunctional' in the biological clock." "
we look forward to the early advent of remedies and improvements to help people whose circadian rhythms are disrupted - such as those who travel across time zones and work night shifts But until then, we can still try to maintain good habits, such as before bedtime do not let the computer, mobile phone screen light to interfere with our biological clock References: 1- Patrick-Simon Welz et al., (2019) BMAL1-Driven Tissue Clocks Independent To Light to Maintain Homeostasis Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.009 Kevin B Korononoowski et al., (2019) Defining the Independence of the Liver Circadian Clock Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.04.025 original title: two "Cells" in the same period: Don't stay up late! When you're upside down day and night, your skin and your liver know everything.