昼夜节律与能量代谢

地球上大多数生物存在内源性的昼夜节律生物钟,它使得生物个体能够预知环境中由于地球自转产生的周期性昼夜变化。这种预知性使得生物个体的内在生理节律与周围环境的变化周期保持一致,从而能够更有效地从周围环境中摄取能量,在体内更高效地利用能量,亦即更好的适应环境以获得进化上的优势。生物钟能够广泛调控哺乳动物的睡眠、进食和代谢等多个方面的行为和生理功能,生物钟的破坏与多种代谢疾病相关;同时代谢过程和进食行为也能反过来调控生物钟。近年来对生物钟的不断研究加深了人们对肥胖和糖尿病等代谢疾病的理解,为这些疾病的治疗提供了新的思路和方法。本文主要综述哺乳动物生物钟与能量代谢之间的关系及研究进展。

Circadian rhythms and energy metabolism

An intrinsic circadian clock exists in most organisms in the planet, enabling the individuals to anticipate the daily environmental changes generated by the rotation of the Earth. These clocks coordinate physiological processes to maintain synchrony with the around environmental cycles, ensuring the organisms to intake and use energy more efficiently, therefore conferring an adaptive advantage during the evolutionary process. Diverse mammalian physiological processes and behaviors are regulated by circadian clocks such as sleep, feeding behaviors and metabolic processes. Perturbations of circadian clocks are tightly associated with various metabolic diseases. Conversely, metabolic signals and feeding behaviors could also regulate circadian clocks. Recent studies on circadian clocks has expended our knowledge of their important roles in the development of obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases, thereby potentially providing novel methods and targets for the treatment on these diseases. Here, we review the relationship between the mammalian circadian clocks and energy metabolism, as well as the recent progresses in the field.