Circadian Rhythms in Isolated Brain Regions

By Michikazu Abe, E. Herzog, S. Yamazaki, Martin Straume, H. Tei, Y. Sakaki, M. Menaker, G. Block. Journal of Neuroscience, 2002

661 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the mammalian hypothalamus has been referred to as the master circadian pacemaker that drives daily rhythms in behavior and physiology. There is, however, evidence for extra-SCN circadian oscillators. Neural tissues cultured from rats carrying the Per-luciferase transgene were used to monitor the intrinsic Per1 expression patterns in different brain areas and their response to changes in the light cycle. Although many Per-expressing brain areas were arrhythmic in culture, 14 of the 27 areas examined were rhythmic. The pineal and pituitary glands both expressed rhythms that persisted for >3 d in vitro, with peak expression during the subjective night. Nuclei in the olfactory bulb and the ventral hypothalamus expressed rhythmicity with peak expression at night, whereas other brain areas were either weakly rhythmic and peaked at night, or arrhythmic. After a 6 hr advance or delay in the light cycle, the pineal, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and arcuate nucleus each adjusted the phase of their rhythmicity with different kinetics. Together, these results indicate that the brain contains multiple, damped circadian oscillators outside the SCN. The phasing of these oscillators to one another may play a critical role in coordinating brain activity and its adjustment to changes in the light cycle.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Endocrine and Autonomic Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0b7253f515a75dfd811b446df58a84f5509c465e

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In Endocrine and Autonomic Systems

Citations in the corpus

Generation of the Melatonin Endocrine Message in Mammals: A Review of the Complex Regulation of Melatonin Synthesis by Norepinephrine, Peptides, and Other Pineal Transmitters (2003, background): “It was recently reported that mPer1-luciferase activity oscillates for two to three circadian cycles in isolated rat pineal glands (Abe et al., 2002) and that Per1 expression may be stimulated by CLOCK/BMAL1 in transfected pinealocytes (Fukuhara et al., 2002).”
Molecular components of the Mammalian circadian clock. (2013, background): “Most tissues and cell types have been found to display circadian patterns of gene expression when isolated from the SCN (Balsalobre et al. 1998; Tosini and Menaker 1996; Yamazaki et al. 2000; Abe et al. 2002; Brown and Azzi 2013).”
Mammalian circadian biology: elucidating genome-wide levels of temporal organization. (2004, background): “Second, ex vivo cultures of peripheral tissues from transgenic rats in which the mouse Per1 promoter drives a luciferase reporter gene reveal circadian rhythms in luminescence that damp out after 2–7 days (2, 224).”
Molecular components of the mammalian circadian clock. (2006, background): “Most tissues and cell types have been found to display circadian patterns of gene expression when isolated from the SCN (Balsalobre et al. 1998; Tosini and Menaker 1996; Yamazaki et al. 2000; Abe et al. 2002; Brown and Azzi 2013).”
Physiological significance of a peripheral tissue circadian clock (2008, background): “Recently it has been recognized that circadian clocks are also found in additional brain regions (3), the retina (4), and in many peripheral tissues (5–7).”
The “Other” Circadian System: Food as a Zeitgeber (2002, background): “…rat model, reported that many central nervous system cultures outside the SCN exhibited damped oscillations, reinforcing the notion of the SCN being a master oscillator that is required to sustain the amplitude of oscillations in other structures that express clock genes (Abe et al., 2002).”