Temperature dependence of the hamster circadian pacemaker

1983 ◽  
Vol 244 (5) ◽  
pp. R607-R610 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. P. Gibbs

Blind male hamsters were maintained in running-wheel cages in a LD 12:12 light-dark cycle. After regular running patterns were established hypothermia was induced by ether anesthesia, wetting of the fur with ethanol, and cooling with ice. The hamsters were kept hypothermic for 3-24 h at colonic temperatures from 10 to 20 degrees C. Following hypothermia the animals were rewarmed and replaced in their home cages. Examination of the locomotor activity records showed phase shifts (delays) in activity onset that were correlated with the temperature and duration of the hypothermia but not with the circadian time at which the hypothermia was administered. The data were interpreted to mean that the circadian pacemaker was running at a reduced rate during the hypothermic bout. Calculation of the Q10 for the rate of the clock during hypothermia produced a range from 1.08 to 1.34 depending on the method of calculation. When compared with earlier data gathered from rats under similar conditions, the hamsters circadian pacemaker appears to be better temperature compensated.


1981 ◽  
Vol 241 (1) ◽  
pp. R17-R20 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. P. Gibbs

Blind female rats were maintained in running-wheel cages in a 12-h light-dark cycle. Hypothermia was induced by ether anesthesia, wetting of the fur by ethanol, and covering with ice. Rats were put in restraining cages and colonic temperatures were maintained between 20 and 32 degrees C for 3-16 h by cooling with ice and water. On recovery from hypothermia, the rats were replaced in their home wheels. Examination of the activity records showed significant phase delays associated with temperatures lower than 28 degrees C. At 20 degrees C, the phase delays indicated that the clock was running at about 64% normal speed giving a mean Q10 of 1.33, which is quite a bit higher than previously reported. It is speculated that, because the rat maintains its body temperature within narrow limits after the neonatal stage, it has lost the precise temperature compensation for the period of its biological clock that has been so well documented in other organisms.



2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabien Pifferi ◽  
Alexandre Dal-Pan ◽  
Solène Languille ◽  
Fabienne Aujard

In several species, resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound, activates sirtuin proteins implicated in the regulation of energy balance and biological clock processes. To demonstrate the effect of resveratrol on clock function in an aged primate, young and aged mouse lemurs(Microcebus murinus)were studied over a 4-week dietary supplementation with resveratrol. Spontaneous locomotor activity and daily variations in body temperature were continuously recorded. Reduction in locomotor activity onset and changes in body temperature rhythm in resveratrol-supplemented aged animals suggest an improved synchronisation on the light-dark cycle. Resveratrol could be a good candidate to restore the circadian rhythms in the elderly.



2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (12) ◽  
pp. 1083-1091 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. van der Merwe ◽  
N.C. Bennett ◽  
A. Haim ◽  
M.K. Oosthuizen

The locomotor activity rhythms of wild-caught Namaqua rock mice (Micaelamys namaquensis (A. Smith, 1834)) were examined under four light-cycle regimes to quantitatively describe the daily expression of locomotor activity and to study the innate relationship between activity and the light–dark cycle. Activity was always significantly higher at night than during the day; we note four trends. (1) The LD1 light cycle (12 h light : 12 h dark) established a distinct light-entrained and strongly nocturnal activity rhythm (99.11% nocturnal activity). The activity onset was prompt (zeitgeber time (ZT) 12.2 ± 0.04) and activity continued without any prominent peaks or extended times of rest until the offset of activity at ZT 23.73 ± 0.08. (2) Evidence for the internal maintenance of locomotor activity was obtained from the constant dark cycle (DD) in which locomotor activity free ran (mean τ = 23.89 h) and 77.58% of the activity was expressed during the subjective night. (3) During re-entrainment (LD2; 12 h light : 12 h dark), a nocturnal activity rhythm was re-established (98.65% nocturnal activity). (4) The inversion of the light cycle (DL; 12 h dark : 12 h light) evoked a shift in activity that again revealed dark-induced locomotor activity (95.69% nocturnal activity). Females were consistently more active than males in all of the light cycles, but only under the DD and LD2 cycles were females significantly more active than males. Although this species is considered nocturnal from field observations, information regarding its daily expression of activity and the role of light in its entrainment is lacking. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report quantitatively on the species’ daily rhythm of activity and to investigate its relationship to the light–dark cycle.



1991 ◽  
Vol 261 (5) ◽  
pp. R1109-R1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Wickland ◽  
F. W. Turek

Experiments were conducted in golden hamsters to examine the relationship between induced acute increases in locomotor activity and phase shifts in the circadian clock underlying the rhythm of activity. Injections of the short-acting benzodiazepine triazolam (TZ) 6 h before the onset of activity resulted in an acute increase in activity and a phase advance in the rhythm of activity; injections of TZ induced larger phase shifts in animals housed without running wheels than in those housed with wheels. Transfer to a cage with access to a running wheel for 1 h at different circadian times induced large phase advances (mean of 2 h) and small phase delays depending on the circadian time of transfer. Maximal mean phase advances resulted when animals were transferred to a cage with wheel 3 h before activity onset, and at this circadian time there was a significant correlation between the magnitude of the phase shift and the amount of increase over baseline activity for the first hour after transfer. These results indicate that access to a running wheel in animals housed without wheels can be a significant phase-shifting stimulus to the circadian clock and that the phase shifts induced by injection of TZ or transfer to a new cage with wheel are related to the activity state of the animal or to the amount of locomotor activity that is induced at particular times.



2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hicham Farsi ◽  
Mohamed R. Achaâban ◽  
Mohammed Piro ◽  
Béatrice Bothorel ◽  
Mohammed Ouassat ◽  
...  

Abstract In the dromedary camel, a well-adapted desert mammal, daily ambient temperature (Ta)-cycles have been shown to synchronize the central circadian clock. Such entrainment has been demonstrated by examining two circadian outputs, body temperature and melatonin rhythms. Locomotor activity (LA), another circadian output not yet investigated in the camel, may provide further information on such specific entrainment. To verify if daily LA is an endogenous rhythm and whether the desert Ta-cycle can entrain it, six dromedaries were first kept under total darkness and constant-Ta. Results showed that the LA rhythm free runs with a period of 24.8–24.9 h. After having verified that the light–dark cycle synchronizes LA, camels were subjected to a Ta-cycle with warmer temperatures during subjective days and cooler temperatures during subjective nights. Results showed that the free-running LA rhythm was entrained by the Ta-cycle with a period of exactly 24.0 h, while a 12 h Ta-cycle phase advance induced an inversion of the LA rhythm and advanced the acrophase by 9 h. Similarly, activity onset and offset were significantly advanced. All together, these results demonstrate that the Ta-cycle is a strong zeitgeber, able to entrain the camel LA rhythm, hence corroborating previous results concerning the Ta non-photic synchronization of the circadian master clock.





2010 ◽  
Vol 298 (5) ◽  
pp. R1409-R1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Warner ◽  
Preeti H. Jethwa ◽  
Catherine A. Wyse ◽  
Helen I'Anson ◽  
John M. Brameld ◽  
...  

The objective of this study was to determine whether the previously observed effects of photoperiod on body weight in Siberian hamsters were due to changes in the daily patterns of locomotor activity, energy expenditure, and/or feeding behavior. Adult males were monitored through a seasonal cycle using an automated comprehensive laboratory animal monitoring system (CLAMS). Exposure to a short-day photoperiod (SD; 8:16-h light-dark cycle) induced a significant decline in body weight, and oxygen consumption (V̇o2), carbon dioxide production (V̇co2), and heat production all decreased reaching a nadir by 16 wk of SD. Clear daily rhythms in locomotor activity, V̇o2, and V̇co2 were observed at the start of the study, but these all progressively diminished after prolonged exposure to SD. Rhythms in feeding behavior were also detected initially, reflecting an increase in meal frequency but not duration during the dark phase. This rhythm was lost by 8 wk of SD exposure such that food intake was relatively constant across dark and light phases. After 18 wk in SD, hamsters were transferred to a long-day photoperiod (LD; 16:8-h light-dark cycle), which induced significant weight gain. This was associated with an increase in energy intake within 2 wk, while V̇o2, V̇co2, and heat production all increased back to basal levels. Rhythmicity was reestablished within 4 wk of reexposure to long days. These results demonstrate that photoperiod impacts on body weight via complex changes in locomotor activity, energy expenditure, and feeding behavior, with a striking loss of daily rhythms during SD exposure.



2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 203-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann E. K. Kosobud ◽  
Andrea G. Gillman ◽  
Joseph K. Leffel ◽  
Norman C. Pecoraro ◽  
G. V. Rebec ◽  
...  

Circadian rhythms prepare organisms for predictable events during the Earth's 24-h day. These rhythms are entrained by a variety of stimuli. Light is the most ubiquitous and best known zeitgeber, but a number of others have been identified, including food, social cues, locomotor activity, and, most recently drugs of abuse. Given the diversity of zeitgebers, it is probably not surprising that genes capable of clock functions are located throughout almost all organs and tissues. Recent evidence suggests that drugs of abuse can directly entrain some circadian rhythms. We have report here that entrainment by drugs of abuse is independent of the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the light/dark cycle, is not dependent on direct locomotor stimulation, and is shared by a variety of classes of drugs of abuse. We suggest that drug-entrained rhythms reflect variations in underlying neurophysiological states. This could be the basis for known daily variations in drug metabolism, tolerance, and sensitivity to drug reward. These rhythms could also take the form of daily periods of increased motivation to seek and take drugs, and thus contribute to abuse, addiction and relapse.



1990 ◽  
Vol 259 (3) ◽  
pp. E384
Author(s):  
S A Rivkees ◽  
S M Reppert

In a marsupial species, the gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica), the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), the site of a circadian clock, are formed postnatally and begin oscillating as a circadian clock on day 20. In this study, we examined how the timing (phase) of the SCN clock in the developing opossum is coordinated to the environmental light-dark cycle. When pups were reared from birth in darkness by intact dams, the circadian phases in SCN metabolic activity (monitored by 2-deoxy-D-[14C]glucose autoradiography) in 27-day-old pups were desynchronized. When pups were reared in a light-dark cycle that was 12 h out of phase with the circadian time of blinded dams, the pattern of SCN metabolic activity on day 20 was rhythmic and in phase with the light-dark cycle but out of phase with the circadian time of the dam. On day 20, retina-mediated light activation of SCN metabolic activity was also demonstrated, and anterograde tract-tracing studies revealed the presence of the retinohypothalamic tract within the SCN. These results show there is no influence of the opossum dam on the timing of the pup's biological clock. Instead, from the inception of the daily rhythm in SCN metabolic activity, its timing is regulated by retina-mediated light-dark entrainment.



1996 ◽  
Vol 270 (1) ◽  
pp. R271-R282 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Klerman ◽  
D. J. Dijk ◽  
R. E. Kronauer ◽  
C. A. Czeisler

The sensitivity of the human circadian system to light has been the subject of considerable debate. Using computer simulations of a recent quantitative model for the effects of light on the human circadian system, we investigated these effects of light during different experimental protocols. The results of the simulations indicate that the nonuniform distribution over the circadian cycle of exposure to ordinary room light seen in classical free-run studies, in which subjects select their exposure to light and darkness, can result in an observed period of approximately 25 h, even when the intrinsic period of the subject's endogenous circadian pacemaker is much closer to 24 h. Other simulation results suggest that accurate assessment of the true intrinsic period of the human circadian pacemaker requires low ambient light intensities (approximately 10-15 lx) during scheduled wake episodes, desynchrony of the imposed light-dark cycle from the endogenous circadian oscillator, and a study length of at least 20 days. Although these simulations await further experimental substantiation, they highlight the sensitivity to light of the human circadian system and the potential confounding influence of light on the assessment of the intrinsic period of the circadian pacemaker.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document