Disrupting the light-dark cycle of mice increased their susceptibility to inflammatory disease. New research indicates that the production of a key immune cell is controlled by the body's circadian clock.
Circadian rhythms (natural body cycles, physiological responses to day and night) and seasonal clocks are natural cycles in most organisms, including people. In relation to this, research indicates that the body's circadian clock controls the numbers of key inflammatory cells that are produced in response to an injury.
To show this, the research team used a mouse model and from this they identified a gene called Nfil3, which guides the development of the immune cells that patrol the body and protect against bacterial and fungal infections. They found that the efficiency of this gene was affected by alternations to the body clock, especially when the animals were kept awake at times when they would normally be asleep.
The study could lead to new ways to improve up the body's immune response to infection or dampen that response in the case of autoimmune diseases in which the body attacks its own tissues. Although improvements could be made, one implication of the study is with chronic circadian disruptions, such as night-shift work or jet lag, that other research studies have linked to human inflammatory disease.
Coupled with this new research, the findings could have implications for human health. The research was carried out at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The findings have been published in the journal Science. The paper is titled "TH17 Cell Differentiation Is Regulated by the Circadian Clock"
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Maybe the two go hand-in-hand?
Sooooo..... What hospitals should be doing is
1) reducing the cause of inflammation... which on many fronts they are really good at (yeah antibiotics) and finding the cause.
2) not so brouhaha with dietary reductions for inflammation. People are apparently like cattle, all the same when it comes to diet, go figure? Nobody's quite realised that carbs are really not good. Apparently that is politically incorrect.
3) reorientating people's circadian clock, so they would sleep at night and be awake during the day. I think this is important. Unfortunately, hospitals have not made the connection between doing this and saving on having to hire staff to sit with a patient because the demented or delirious patient is off their chops most of the night, but sleeps during the day (not surprising because they are exhausted after being up doing ridiculous things most of the night).
I mean, hospitals are just stupid, really.