Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2011) 26 S8.1

ECE2011 Symposia The biological clock and metabolism (3 abstracts)

Clock genes in human adipose tissue

Marta Garaulet


University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.


Circadian rhythms are such an innate part of our lives that we rarely pause to speculate why they even exist. Some studies have suggested that the disruption of the circadian system may be causal for obesity and manifestations of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Shift-work, sleep-deprivation and bright-light-exposure at night are related to increased adiposity (obesity) and prevalence of MetS. It has been provided evidence of clock genes expression in human adipose tissue and demonstrated its association with different components of the MetS. Moreover, current studies are illustrating the particular role of different clock genes variants and their predicted haplotypes in MetS.

In the present lecture, the molecular mechanisms implicated in the interaction between chonodisruption and metabolic-related illnesses such as obesity and MetS will be treated with different approaches: i) molecular approach: to achieve a better knowledge of the adipose tissue (AT) internal clock and to identify differences among subcutaneous and visceral fat in AT cultures obtained from obese subjects (genomics techniques); ii) different epidemiological approaches in large populations will be mention considering different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of clock genes that are related to obesity and weight loss and whether which are modulated by external factors, such as sleep and diet (nutrigenetic studies with DNA isolation and clock genotyping); iii) clinical approach: behavioral (sleep quality and duration, eating patterns and chronobiological characteristics) and hormonal factors which could explain the previously reported association between the clock genes SNPs and weight loss will be also note.

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