There is a direct link between our fat cells and molecules in our biological clock. These watches tell the body when to sleep and digest food, fat cells accumulate when the excess energy, and serves about it the corresponding signal to the brain. There at the wrong time, and to gain weight easier.


In a new study in Nature Medicine PhD, researcher in the laboratory of garret Fitzgerald, doctor of medical Sciences, the fed Director of the Institute for Translational medicine and therapeutics Georgios Pasos from Medical school Perelman at the University of Pennsylvania found that deleting the time of the gene, known as BMAL1 from fat cells, is a cause of obesity in mice, associated with the change of schedule of eating these nocturnal animals. These data shed light on the complex causes of weight gain in humans.

Research of the University of Pennsylvania surprising in two aspects. "The first is relatively small changes in food consumption, which usually can contribute to the accumulation of energy in mice during leisure, says Pasos. - Our mouse began to suffer obesity without increasing the number of calories consumed". In fact, the cause of turning subjected to investigation of the normal mice in mice with defective hours in fat cells, could serve as the changing nature of their food products.

In the previous study Nature studied described powerful communication channels between circadian rhythms and metabolism, offering new ways for the understanding of disorders of both systems, including jet lag, sleep disorders, obesity and diabetes.

"This is a fundamental shift in our knowledge about the work of the circadian clock (jet lag) and how they organize our cycles of sleep and wakefulness, meal times and even time assimilation of nutrients our body," says the Professor of Laboratory of gene expression Salk Ronald M. Evans.

These behavioral changes in mice partly similar to the syndrome there for the night people, also associated with obesity and first described by albert Standardom in 1955.

The second surprising observation refers to himself molecular clock.

Usually watch in peripheral tissues, as previously thought, and act like a clock in SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus) of the brain that something like the members of the orchestra follow the conductor. "Although we have long known that peripheral watches have sufficient capacity for Autonomous operation - the striker can beat the drum without teams conductor - here we see that the behavior of the orchestra drummer can itself affect the conductor," says Fitzgerald.

Daily intake of food is determined by oscillatory expression of genes that stimulate and suppress appetite in gipotalamusa. The researchers found that when the clock in fat cells fail, disturbed hypothalamic rhythm in favor of food consumption at the wrong time - day in mice, night in humans.

When the typical daily rhythm shifts, also changes in metabolism. For example, people who are employees of the night shift, widespread obesity and metabolic syndrome, and patients with sleep disorders have an increased risk of obesity. Reducing the duration of sleep also means acquiring a larger weight in healthy men and women.

Dr. Steven McKnight from the University of Texas southwestern medical center in Dallas and his team have released details of how food can affect circadian rhythms. A certain amount of food as fuel for the processes occurring in the body, is stored in the form of substances NADPH, chief conductor of energy.

Although some experts believe that the light has the strongest influence on the position of hours, there are some indications that food plays such as, if not more important role.

The law balancing

Balancing energy levels in the body requires the integration of many signals between the Central nervous system and such peripheral tissues such as liver and heart. Fat cells not only store and release energy, but are also associated with a brain the number of saved energy by means of the hormone leptin.

The secretion of leptin may cause increase of the amount of energy required for use and reduce the amount of food consumed through the way in gipotalamusa.

Usually the mouse, located on fat diet, quickly developed changes in its usual activity model. Animals begin to eat more during the day, when it is assumed that the mouse is a creature of the night - should sleep. They also manifested the changes in molecular components circadian clock and important aspects of metabolic chemistry.

Pennsylvania team of researchers found that only a small fraction of the genes was modified, when the clock in fat cells have failed and regulated such unsaturated fatty acids, as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which were released into the blood. Interestingly, some of these fatty acids are usually associated with fish oil. Of course, the levels of EPA and DHA in the plasma and in gipotalamusa during malnutrition were low.

"To our surprise, we could take over the phenotype is irrelevant to the fat cells fluctuations and expression of genes in gipotalamusa, model nutrition and obesity-adding EPA and DHA animals with modified genome," says Pasos.

These findings point to the role of molecular clock for the fat cells in the ordering of energy and time meal by combining with gipotalamusa, which ultimately affects the accumulation of energy and body weight.

Taken together, these studies emphasize the importance of molecular clock as a "conductor" of metabolism and reflect the main role of fat cells in the integration of food intake and energy expenditure.

"Research shows that short-term changes have a direct impact on the frequency of food intake," says Fitzgerald. - "Over time, these changes lead to weight gain. Conductor really depends on drummer".

In addition, the researchers found that mice that are on high-calorie diet, changes of activities of key genes that control approximately 24-hour circadian rhythm. These watches controlled metabolic genes, manifest themselves in the role of components of the brain, liver and fatty tissues. High-calorie diet suppresses the activity of key clock genes.

Changed not only the activity and the model of power, but also the molecular processes involved in the metabolism. The changes seem to be global. These watches are the old mechanism that is coordinating the behavior to changes in the external environment, which varies in accordance with the rotation of the Earth, the cycles of day and night. Of course, hours depend on the composition of the diet.