Abstract
Biological rhythms are the essence of life. They cover a wide range of frequencies, among which circadian rhythms have gained great interest in view of their ubiquity, partly endogenous nature now firmly documented at the molecular level, and wide-ranged involvement in health and disease. Circadian rhythms in organisms are synchronized by the lighting regimen and the feeding schedule. They are primarily orchestrated by a small brain area of roughly 20,000 neurons situated in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, while clock genes reside in almost every cell. Estimating quantitatively circadian (and other) rhythm characteristics is important in relation to both diagnosis and treatment since changes occurring during the development of a disease condition may affect the amplitude and/or phase as well as the average value and all rhythm parameters may be affected by treatment. After briefly examining circadian rhythms related to mitochondria, notably mitochondria of the heart and brain, we review early work on circadian, ultradian and infradian variation (components with a frequency higher or lower than one cycle per day, respectively). Consideration is given to the role of mitochondria in cellular metabolism, which is tightly coupled to circadian clocks.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Recent Advances in Mitochondrial Medicine and Coenzyme Q 10 |
Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
Pages | 37-56 |
Number of pages | 20 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781536131505 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781536131499 |
State | Published - Jan 1 2018 |
Keywords
- Cellular metabolism
- Chronobiology
- Circadian
- Clock genes
- Feeding schedule
- Free-running
- Infradian
- Lighting regimen
- Mitochondria synchronizer
- Ultradian