Circadian organization in male mice lacking the gene for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS-/-)

A wrinkle in time: circadian biology in pulmonary vascular health and disease

An often overlooked element of pulmonary vascular disease is time. Cellular responses to time, which are regulated directly by the core circadian clock, have only recently been elucidated. Despite an extensive collection of data regarding the role of rhythmic contribution to disease pathogenesis (such as systemic hypertension, coronary artery, and renal disease), the roles of key circadian transcription factors in pulmonary hypertension remain understudied. This is despite a large degree of overlap in the pulmonary hypertension and circadian rhythm fields, not only including shared signaling pathways, but also cell-specific effects of the core clock that are known to result in both protective and adverse lung vessel changes. Therefore, the goal of this review is to summarize the current dialogue regarding common pathways in circadian biology, with a specific emphasis on its implications in the progression of pulmonary hypertension. In this work, we emphasize specific proteins involved in the regulation of the core molecular clock while noting the circadian cell-specific changes relevant to vascular remodeling. Finally, we apply this knowledge to the optimization of medical therapy, with a focus on sleep hygiene and the role of chronopharmacology in patients with this disease. In dissecting the unique relationship between time and cellular biology, we aim to provide valuable insight into the practical implications of considering time as a therapeutic variable. Armed with this information, physicians will be positioned to more efficiently use the full four dimensions of patient care, resulting in improved morbidity and mortality of pulmonary hypertension patients.

Multi-Modal Regulation of Circadian Physiology by Interactive Features of Biological Clocks

The circadian clock is a fundamental biological timing mechanism that generates nearly 24 h rhythms of physiology and behaviors, including sleep/wake cycles, hormone secretion, and metabolism. Evolutionarily, the endogenous clock is thought to confer living organisms, including humans, with survival benefits by adapting internal rhythms to the day and night cycles of the local environment. Mirroring the evolutionary fitness bestowed by the circadian clock, daily mismatches between the internal body clock and environmental cycles, such as irregular work (e.g., night shift work) and life schedules (e.g., jet lag, mistimed eating), have been recognized to increase the risk of cardiac, metabolic, and neurological diseases. Moreover, increasing numbers of studies with cellular and animal models have detected the presence of functional circadian oscillators at multiple levels, ranging from individual neurons and fibroblasts to brain and peripheral organs. These oscillators are tightly coupled to timely modulate cellular and bodily responses to physiological and metabolic cues. In this review, we will discuss the roles of central and peripheral clocks in physiology and diseases, highlighting the dynamic regulatory interactions between circadian timing systems and multiple metabolic factors.

Circadian Rhythm in Adipose Tissue: Novel Antioxidant Target for Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases

Obesity is a major risk factor for most metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. Adipose tissue is an important endocrine organ that modulates metabolic and cardiovascular health by secreting signaling molecules. Oxidative stress is a common mechanism associated with metabolic and cardiovascular complications including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Oxidative stress can cause adipose tissue dysfunction. Accumulating data from both humans and experimental animal models suggest that adipose tissue function and oxidative stress have an innate connection with the intrinsic biological clock. Circadian clock orchestrates biological processes in adjusting to daily environmental changes according to internal or external cues. Recent studies have identified the genes and molecular pathways exhibiting circadian expression patterns in adipose tissue. Disruption of the circadian rhythmicity has been suggested to augment oxidative stress and aberrate adipose tissue function and metabolism. Therefore, circadian machinery in the adipose tissue may be a novel therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we summarize recent findings on circadian rhythm and oxidative stress in adipose tissue, dissect the key components that play a role in regulating the clock rhythm, oxidative stress and adipose tissue function, and discuss the potential use of antioxidant treatment on metabolic and cardiovascular diseases by targeting the adipose clock.

Physiology of circadian entrainment

Mammalian circadian rhythms are controlled by endogenous biological oscillators, including a master clock located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Since the period of this oscillation is of approximately 24 h, to keep synchrony with the environment, circadian rhythms need to be entrained daily by means of Zeitgeber ("time giver") signals, such as the light-dark cycle. Recent advances in the neurophysiology and molecular biology of circadian rhythmicity allow a better understanding of synchronization. In this review we cover several aspects of the mechanisms for photic entrainment of mammalian circadian rhythms, including retinal sensitivity to light by means of novel photopigments as well as circadian variations in the retina that contribute to the regulation of retinal physiology. Downstream from the retina, we examine retinohypothalamic communication through neurotransmitter (glutamate, aspartate, pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide) interaction with SCN receptors and the resulting signal transduction pathways in suprachiasmatic neurons, as well as putative neuron-glia interactions. Finally, we describe and analyze clock gene expression and its importance in entrainment mechanisms, as well as circadian disorders or retinal diseases related to entrainment deficits, including experimental and clinical treatments.

Circadian Rhythms in Heart Rate, Motility, and Body Temperature of Wild‐type C57 and eNOS Knock‐out Mice Under Light‐dark, Free‐run, and After Time Zone Transition

The nitric oxide (NO) system is involved in the regulation of the cardiovascular system in controlling central and peripheral vascular tone and cardiac functions. It was the aim of this study to investigate in wild-type C57BL/6 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) knock-out mice (eNOS-/-) the contribution of NO on the circadian rhythms in heart rate (HR), motility (motor activity [MA]), and body temperature (BT) under various environmental conditions. Experiments were performed in 12:12 h of a light:dark cycle (LD), under free-run in total darkness (DD), and after a phase delay shift of the LD cycle by -6 h (i.e., under simulation of a westward time zone transition). All parameters were monitored by radiotelemetry in freely moving mice. In LD, no significant differences in the rhythms of HR and MA were observed between the two strains of mice. BT, however, was significantly lower during the light phase in eNOS-/- mice, resulting in a significantly greater amplitude. The period of the free-running rhythm in DD was slightly shorter for all variables, though not significant. In general, rhythmicity was greater in eNOS-/- than in C57 mice both in LD and DD. After a delay shift of the LD cycle, HR and BT were resynchronized to the new LD schedule within 5-6 days, and resynchronization of MA occurred within 2-3 days. The results in telemetrically instrumented mice show that complete knock-out of the endothelial NO system--though expressed in the suprachiasmatic nuclei and in peripheral tissues--did not affect the circadian organization of heart rate and motility. The circadian regulation of the body temperature was slightly affected in eNOS-/- mice.

cGMP-dependent protein kinase type I is implicated in the regulation of the timing and quality of sleep and wakefulness

Many effects of nitric oxide (NO) are mediated by the activation of guanylyl cyclases and subsequent production of the second messenger cyclic guanosine-3′,5′-monophosphate (cGMP). cGMP activates cGMP-dependent protein kinases (PRKGs), which can therefore be considered downstream effectors of NO signaling. Since NO is thought to be involved in the regulation of both sleep and circadian rhythms, we analyzed these two processes in mice deficient for cGMP-dependent protein kinase type I (PRKG1) in the brain. Prkg1 mutant mice showed a strikingly altered distribution of sleep and wakefulness over the 24 hours of a day as well as reductions in rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS) duration and in non-REM sleep (NREMS) consolidation, and their ability to sustain waking episodes was compromised. Furthermore, they displayed a drastic decrease in electroencephalogram (EEG) power in the delta frequency range (1–4 Hz) under baseline conditions, which could be normalized after sleep deprivation. In line with the re-distribution of sleep and wakefulness, the analysis of wheel-running and drinking activity revealed more rest bouts during the activity phase and a higher percentage of daytime activity in mutant animals. No changes were observed in internal period length and phase-shifting properties of the circadian clock while chi-squared periodogram amplitude was significantly reduced, hinting at a less robust oscillator. These results indicate that PRKG1 might be involved in the stabilization and output strength of the circadian oscillator in mice. Moreover, PRKG1 deficiency results in an aberrant pattern, and consequently a reduced quality, of sleep and wakefulness, possibly due to a decreased wake-promoting output of the circadian system impinging upon sleep.

Circadian profiling of the transcriptome in NIH/3T3 fibroblasts: comparison with rhythmic gene expression in SCN2.2 cells and the rat SCN

To screen for output signals that may distinguish the pacemaker in the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) from peripheral-type oscillators in which the canonical clockworks are similarly regulated in a circadian manner, the rhythmic behavior of the transcriptome in forskolin-stimulated NIH/3T3 fibroblasts was analyzed and compared relative to SCN2.2 cells in vitro and the rat SCN. Similar to the circadian profiling of the SCN2.2 and rat SCN transcriptomes, NIH/3T3 fibroblasts exhibited circadian fluctuations in the expression of the core clock genes, Per2, Cry1, and Bmal1, and 323 functionally diverse transcripts, many of which regulate cellular communication. Overlap in rhythmic transcripts among NIH/3T3 fibroblasts, SCN2.2 cells, and the rat SCN was limited to these clock genes and four other genes that mediate fatty acid and lipid metabolism or function as nuclear factors. Compared with NIH/3T3 cells, circadian gene expression in SCN oscillators was more prevalent among genes mediating glucose metabolism and neurotransmission. Coupled with evidence for the rhythmic regulation of the inducible isoform of nitric oxide synthase (iNos) in SCN2.2 cells and the rat SCN but not in fibroblasts, studies examining the effects of a NOS inhibitor on metabolic rhythms in cocultures containing SCN2.2 cells and untreated NIH/3T3 cells suggest that the gaseous neurotransmitter nitric oxide may play a key role in SCN pacemaker function. This comparative analysis of circadian gene expression in SCN and non-SCN cells may have important implications in the selective analysis of circadian signals involved in the coupling of SCN oscillators and regulation of rhythmicity in downstream cells.

The circadian visual system, 2005

The primary mammalian circadian clock resides in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a recipient of dense retinohypothalamic innervation. In its most basic form, the circadian rhythm system is part of the greater visual system. A secondary component of the circadian visual system is the retinorecipient intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) which has connections to many parts of the brain, including efferents converging on targets of the SCN. The IGL also provides a major input to the SCN, with a third major SCN afferent projection arriving from the median raphe nucleus. The last decade has seen a blossoming of research into the anatomy and function of the visual, geniculohypothalamic and midbrain serotonergic systems modulating circadian rhythmicity in a variety of species. There has also been a substantial and simultaneous elaboration of knowledge about the intrinsic structure of the SCN. Many of the developments have been driven by molecular biological investigation of the circadian clock and the molecular tools are enabling novel understanding of regional function within the SCN. The present discussion is an extension of the material covered by the 1994 review, "The Circadian Visual System."

Neurotransmitters of the suprachiasmatic nuclei

There has been extensive research in the recent past looking into the molecular basis and mechanisms of the biological clock, situated in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus. Neurotransmitters are a very important component of SCN function. Thorough knowledge of neurotransmitters is not only essential for the understanding of the clock but also for the successful manipulation of the clock with experimental chemicals and therapeutical drugs. This article reviews the current knowledge about neurotransmitters in the SCN, including neurotransmitters that have been identified only recently. An attempt was made to describe the neurotransmitters and hormonal/diffusible signals of the SCN efference, which are necessary for the master clock to exert its overt function. The expression of robust circadian rhythms depends on the integrity of the biological clock and on the integration of thousands of individual cellular clocks found in the clock. Neurotransmitters are required at all levels, at the input, in the clock itself, and in its efferent output for the normal function of the clock. The relationship between neurotransmitter function and gene expression is also discussed because clock gene transcription forms the molecular basis of the clock and its working.

Interleukin-6 and Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression in the Vasopressin and Corticotrophin-releasing Factor Systems of the Rat Hypothalamus

Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are constitutively expressed in hypothalamic cells. However, phenotypic and functional aspects of these cells remain unknown. We have studied the expression pattern of these two molecules in hypothalamic cells expressing corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and arginin-vasopressin (AVP), two major regulatory peptides in the hypothalamus-pituitary system, using immunofluorescence, intracerebroventricular injection of colchicine, and the study in parallel of the labeling pattern of axons in the median eminence. Within AVP cells, we distinguished two different populations: large, intensely stained AVP cells coexpressing IL-6; and large, intensely stained AVP cells coexpressing IL-6 and NOS. Within the CRF cells, we distinguished three different populations: large, intensely stained CRF cells immunonegative for AVP, NOS, and IL-6; large cells weakly stained for CRF and AVP, immunopositive for NOS and immunonegative for IL-6; and small cells intensely stained for CRF and AVP and immunonegative for IL-6 and NOS. In addition, we also found AVP cells containing IL-6 in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. These results suggest that neuronal NOS and IL-6 may be involved in different modulatory processes in hypophysiotropic and non-hypophysiotropic cells.

Circadian profiling of the transcriptome in immortalized rat SCN cells

Endogenous oscillations in gene expression are a prevalent feature of the circadian clock in the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and similar timekeeping systems in other organisms. To determine whether immortalized cells derived from the rat SCN (SCN2.2) retain these intrinsic rhythm-generating properties, oscillatory behavior of the SCN2.2 transcriptome was analyzed and compared with that found in the rat SCN in vivo using rat U34A Affymetrix GeneChips. In SCN2.2 cells, 116 unique genes and 46 ESTs or genes of unknown function exhibited circadian fluctuations with a 1.5-fold or greater difference in their mRNA abundance for two cycles. Many (35%) of these rhythmically regulated genes in SCN2.2 cells also exhibited circadian profiles of mRNA expression in the rat SCN in vivo. Functional analyses and cartography indicate that a diverse set of cellular pathways are strategically regulated by the circadian clock in SCN2.2 cells and that the largest categories of rhythmic genes are those involved in cellular and systems-level communication or in metabolic processes like cellular respiration, fatty acid recycling, and steroid synthesis. Because many of the same genes or nodes within these functional categories were rhythmically expressed in both SCN2.2 cells and the rat SCN, the circadian regulation of these pathways may be important in modulating input to or output from the SCN clock mechanism. In summary, global expression and circadian regulation of the SCN2.2 transcriptome retain many SCN-like properties, suggesting that genes displaying rhythmic profiles in both experimental models may be integral to their function as both circadian oscillators and pacemakers.

Oligodeoxynucleotide methods for analyzing the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus

The recent identification of specific genes responsible for the generation of endogenous circadian rhythmicity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus presents a new level of investigation into endogenous rhythmicity and mechanisms of synchronization of this circadian clock with the environmental light?dark cycle. This article describes techniques that employ antisense and decoy oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) to determine the roles of specific molecular substrates both in endogenous rhythmicity and in regulating the effects of light on the mammalian circadian clock. Application of antisense ODN technology has revealed a role for timeless (Tim) in the core clock mechanism and established that induction of period1 (Per1) is required for light responsiveness. Likewise, a decoy ODN designed to sequester activated CREB protein definitively demonstrated a requirement for CRE-mediated transcription in light signaling. Experiments designed with these molecular tools offer new insights on the interaction of cellular processes and signaling with the molecular clockworks.