TY - JOUR
T1 - Telling biological time from a blood sample
T2 - current capabilities and future potential
AU - von Schantz, Malcolm
AU - Skene, Debra J.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - Circadian rhythms, near-24 h oscillations that reflect homeostatic control by an internal timing system rather than the influence of external factors, are an important and sometimes underappreciated aspect of human physiology and biochemistry. Over the past few decades, the pineal gland hormone melatonin has been established both as a robust marker of circadian phase in plasma or saliva and as a chronobiotic drug administered to reset the timing of the circadian oscillator. Recent work by our own and other laboratories has sought to systematically investigate whole categories of molecular components in blood samples in a hypothesis-free fashion by employing metabolomic methodologies to study low molecular weight compounds and transcriptomic methodologies to study gene expression in white blood cells, respectively. A number of components have been pinpointed that show a rhythmic circadian variation or are affected by imposed factors such as sleep deprivation. Although melatonin, a robust and reliable circadian phase marker, will be a hard act to follow, these lines of research suggest numerous potential leads for useful new markers of biological timing.
AB - Circadian rhythms, near-24 h oscillations that reflect homeostatic control by an internal timing system rather than the influence of external factors, are an important and sometimes underappreciated aspect of human physiology and biochemistry. Over the past few decades, the pineal gland hormone melatonin has been established both as a robust marker of circadian phase in plasma or saliva and as a chronobiotic drug administered to reset the timing of the circadian oscillator. Recent work by our own and other laboratories has sought to systematically investigate whole categories of molecular components in blood samples in a hypothesis-free fashion by employing metabolomic methodologies to study low molecular weight compounds and transcriptomic methodologies to study gene expression in white blood cells, respectively. A number of components have been pinpointed that show a rhythmic circadian variation or are affected by imposed factors such as sleep deprivation. Although melatonin, a robust and reliable circadian phase marker, will be a hard act to follow, these lines of research suggest numerous potential leads for useful new markers of biological timing.
KW - Circadian rhythms
KW - melatonin
KW - metabolome
KW - sleep
KW - sleep deprivation
KW - transcriptome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945189213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0004563215597943
DO - 10.1177/0004563215597943
M3 - Article
C2 - 26169057
AN - SCOPUS:84945189213
VL - 52
SP - 699
EP - 701
JO - Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
JF - Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
SN - 0004-5632
IS - 6
ER -