What is it about?

The kidney is the body's main filter of the blood. Yet, it contains a strong circadian clock. The question is if the kidney remains to be a local clock or if it can influence the overall circadian activities of the body. We sought to answer this question under a pathological condition of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Chronic kidney damage can be induced by adenine feeding, and the damage is evident through chronic upregulation and spatial disorganization of PER2::LUC expression. The circadian rhythm in CKD kidney is less robust and longer in period length, however the CKD SCN exhibits intact rhythm comparable to control. Nonetheless, the behavioral circadian rhythm of CKD animal is less robust and slightly longer in period, reflecting the changes in the kidney. This implies that under pathological conditions, the kidney clock can influence the overall circadian rhythmicity, probably via the SCN.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

CKD has been known to cause sleep disturbances. The current study indicates that such disturbance may reflect dysfunction in circadian clocks. Furthermore, this work enables us to consider a possibility where a peripheral clock erroneously feedbacks to the master clock and disrupts rhythms at the behavioral level of sleep/wake regulation.

Perspectives

The project began at an "Expert Talk" at Shuang Ho Hospital. The main author Jihwan Myung originally presented his ideas on how circadian clocks can regulate mood, and in passing showed his recent discovery on a strong circadian clock in the choroid plexus. This talk led to some questions from nephrologists, as the choroid plexus is the "kidney of the brain", and eventually led to a common project with nephrologists.

Jihwan Myung
Taipei Medical University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The Kidney Clock Contributes to Timekeeping by the Master Circadian Clock, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, June 2019, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/ijms20112765.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page