Abstract
Even though the biological relevance of circadian rhythmicity has been recognized since the middle of the past century, the majority of the medical community has remained unaware of the circadian rhythms or their relevance during most of this time, perhaps because of their apparent opposition to homeostasis. It was not until the 1980s that circadian rhythms begun to be noticed among the physicians, but even now, 30 years later, circadian rhythms are still not an integral part of medical physiology. The cause of the neglect and even rejection of the relevance of circadian biology to human health, from most medical practitioners until the last quarter of the twentieth century, may have involved among other factors: (1) the heuristic power of homeostasis as a general physiological process to understand health, and its unbalance as a major cause of disease; (2) the fact that disruption of circadian rhythmicity was not ostensibly associated at the time with any pathological entity; and, last but not least, (3) the technical problems associated with collecting relevant physiological data for a long time period before the age of electronic devices and massive digital information processing.
This chapter presents a perspective for integrating circadian rhythmicity and its mechanisms with medical physiology. We start by a brief review of the concepts of homeostasis and rheostasis in physiology, then introduce the concept of chronostasis as the mechanism to timing physiological processes. Finally, we provide the main implications of the concept of chronostasis in human health and disease, in light of the recent advances in molecular genetics related to the so-called clock genes.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Abe M, Herzog E, Yamazaki T et al (2002) Circadian rhythms in isolated brain regions. J Neurosci 22:350–356
Aguilar-Roblero R, Díaz-Muñoz M (2010) Chronostatic adaptations in the liver to restricted feeding: the FEO as an emergent oscillator. Sleep Biol Rhythms 8:9–17
Aschoff J (1955) Der Tagesgang der Korpertemperatur beim Menschen. KIin Wochenschr 33:545–551
Aschoff J (1965) Circadian rhythms in man. Science 148:1427–1432
Baeza-Raja B, Eckel-Mahan K, Zhang L et al (2013) p75 Neurotrophin receptor is a clock gene that regulates oscillatory components of circadian and metabolic networks. J Neurosci 33:10221–10234
Bernard C (1865) Introduction â l’etude de la Médicine Experimentale. J. B. Baillièère et Fils, Paris
Bi S, Kim J, Zheng F (2012) Dorsomedial hypothalamic NPY and energy balance control. Neuropeptides 46:309–314
Borbély A (1982) A two-process model of sleep regulation. I. Physiological basis and outline. Hum Neurobiol 1:195–204
Borgs L, Beukelaers P, Vandenbosch R et al (2009) Cell “circadian” cycle. New role for mammalian core clock genes. Cell Cycle 8(6):832–837
Boulant JA (2006) Neuronal basis of Hammel’s model for set-point thermoregulation. J Appl Physiol 100:1347–1354
Boulos Z, Rosenwasser AM (2005) A chronobiological perspective on allostasis and its application to shift work. In: Shulkin J (ed) Allostasis, homeostasis and the costs of physiological adaptation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 228–301
Cabanac M (2006) Adjustable set point: to honor Harold T. Hammel. J Appl Physiol 100:1338–1346
Cannon WB (1929) Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol Rev 9:399–431
Cannon WB (1936) The wisdom of the body. W.W. Norton, New York
Chen HF, Huang CQ, You C et al (2013) Polymorphism of CLOCK gene rs 4580704 COG is associated with susceptibility of Alzheimer’s disease in a Chinese population. Arch Med Res 44:203–207
Daan S, Beersma DM, Borbély AA (1984) Timing of human sleep: recovery process gated by a circadian pacemaker. Am J Physiol 246(2 Pt 2):R161–R178
Delgadillo JA, Canedo GA, Chemineau P et al (1999) Evidence for an annual reproductive rhythm independent of food availability in male Creole goats in subtropical northern Mexico. Theriogenology 52:727–737
Firsov D, Tokonami N, Bonny O (2011) Role of the renal circadian timing system in maintaining water and electrolytes homeostasis. Mol Cell Endocrinol 349:51–55
Fredholm B, Johansson S, Wang Y-Q (2011) Adenosine and the regulation of metabolism and body temperature. Adv Pharmacol 61:77–94
Goel N, Banks S, Mignot E, Dinges DF (2009) PER3 polymorphism predicts cumulative sleep homeostatic but not neurobehavioral changes to chronic partial sleep deprivation. PLoS One 4:e5874
Hammel HT (1968) Regulation of internal body temperature. Annu Rev Physiol 30:641–710
Harris RBS (1990) Role of set-point theory in regulation of body weight. FASEB J 4:3310–3318
Jéquier E, Tappy L (1999) Regulation of body weight in humans. Physiol Rev 79:451–480
Jéquiere E (2002) Leptin signaling, adiposity, and energy balance. Ann N Y Acad Sci 967:379–388
Kalsbeek A, Ruiter M, La Fleur SE et al (2006) The hypothalamic clock and its control of glucose homeostasis. Prog Brain Res 153:283–307
Kalsbeek A, Yi C-X, La Fleur SE, Fliers E (2010) The hypothalamic clock and its control of glucose homeostasis. Trends Endocrinol Metab 21:402–410
Klein DC, Moore RY, Reppert SM (1991) Suprachiasmatic nucleus: the mind’s clock. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 467–472
Kotz C, Nixon J, Butterick T et al (2012) Brain orexin promotes obesity resistance. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1264:72–86
Lewy AJ, Emens JS, Songer JB, Sims N, Laurie AL, Fiala SC, Buti AL (2009) Winter depression: integrating mood, circadian rhythms, and the sleep/wake and light/dark cycles into a bio-psycho-social-environmental model. Sleep Med Clin 4:285–299
Lowrey PL, Takahashi JS (2004) Mammalian circadian biology: elucidating genome-wide levels of temporal organization. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 5:407–441
Mansour HA, Wood J, Logue T, Chowdari KV, Dayal M, Kupfer DJ, Monk TH, Devlin B, Nimgaonkar VL (2006) Association study of eight circadian genes with bipolar I disorder, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia. Genes Brain Behav 5:150–157
Martino TA, Oudit GY, Herzenberg AM, Tata N, Koletar MM, Kabir GM, Belsham DD, Backx PH, Ralph MR, Sole MJ (2008) Circadian rhythm disorganization produces profound cardiovascular and renal disease in hamsters. Am J Physiol 294:R1675–R1683
Moore-Ede MC, Sulzman FM, Fuller CA (1982) The clocks that time us: physiology of the circadian timing system. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 448
Morris CJ, Yang JN, Scheer FA (2012) The impact of the circadian timing system on cardiovascular and metabolic function. Prog Brain Res 199:337–358
Mrosovsky N (1990) Rheostasis: the physiology of change. Oxford University Press, New York
Nakamura K (2011) Central circuitries for body temperature regulation and fever. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 301:R1207–R1228
Nicolaïdis S (1977) Physiologie du comportement alimentaire. In: Meyer P (ed) Physiologie humaine. Flammarion, Paris, pp 908–922
Perreau-Lenz S, Pevet P, Buijs RM, Kalsbeek A (2004) The biological clock: the bodyguard of temporal homeostasis. Chronobiol Int 21:1–25
Romanovsky A (2004) Do fever and anapyrexia exist? Analysis of set point-based definitions. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 287:R992–R995
Romanovsky A (2006) Thermoregulation: some concepts have changed. Functional architecture of the thermoregulatory system. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 292:R37–R46
Rosenblueth A, Wiener N, Bigelow J (1943) Behavior, purpose and teleology. Philos Sci 10:18–24
Roth J, Rummel C, Barth S, Gerstberger R, Hübschle T (2006) Molecular aspects of fever and hyperthermia. Neurol Clin 24:421–439
Russek M, Cabanac M (1983) Regulacion y Control en Biología. Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México, 148
Sahar S, Sassone-Corsi P (2012) Regulation of metabolism: the circadian clock dictates the time. Trends Endocrinol Metab 23:1–8
Speakman J, Levitsky D, Allison D (2011) Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity. Dis Model Mech 4:733–745
Sterling P, Eyer J (1988) Allostasis: a new paradigm to explain arousal pathology. In: Fisher S, Reason J (eds) Handbook of life stress cognition and health. Wiley, New York, pp 629–650
Stevens RG, Hansen J, Costa G et al (2011) Considerations of circadian impact for defining ‘shift work’ in cancer studies: IARC Working Group Report. Occup Environ Med 68:154–162
Tenkanen L, Sjoblom T, Kalimo R, Alikoski T, Harma M (1997) Shift work, occupation and coronary heart disease over 6 years of follow-up in the Helsinki Heart Study. Scand J Work Environ Health 23:257–265
Tonsfeldt K, Chappell P (2011) Clocks on top: the role of the circadian clock in the hypothalamic and pituitary regulation of endocrine physiology. Mol Cell Endocrinol 349:3–12
Turek FW, Joshu C, Kohsaka A et al (2005) Obesity and metabolic syndrome in circadian Clock mutant mice. Science 308:1043–1045
Viola A, Archer S, James L (2007) PER3 polymorphism predicts sleep structure and waking performance. Curr Biol 17:613–618
Watts AG (1991) The efferent projections of the suprachiasmatic nucleus: anatomical insights into the control of circadian rhythms. In: Klein DC, Moore RY, Reppert SM (eds) Suprachiasmatic nucleus: the mind’s clock. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 77–106
Werner J (2010) System properties, feedback control and effector coordination of human temperature regulation. Eur J Appl Physiol 109:13–25
Wiener N (1948) Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, p 212
Woods SC, Ramsay DS (2007) Homeostasis: beyond Curt Richter. Appetite 49:388–398
Wright CL, Burgoon P, Bishop P, Boulant JA (2008) Cyclic GMP alters the firing rate and thermosensitivity of hypothalamic neurons. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 294:R1704–R1715
Yamazaki S, Numano R, Abe M et al (2000) Resetting central and peripheral circadian oscillators in transgenic rats. Science 288:682–685
Yamazaki S, Straume M, Tei H, Sakaki Y, Menaker M, Block GD (2002) Effects of aging on central and peripheral mammalian clocks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99:10801–10806
Yasenkov R, Deboer T (2012) Circadian modulation of sleep in rodents. Prog Brain Res 199:203–218
Acknowledgments
The author thanks José Luis Chavez-Juarez and Ana Maria Escalante for critical reading of the manuscript and assistance obtaining bibliographic material. Supported by Grants IN-204811 from PAPIIT/DGAPA/UNAM and CB-2009-01-128528 from CONACyT.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aguilar-Roblero, R. (2015). Chronostasis: The Timing of Physiological Systems. In: Aguilar-Roblero, R., Díaz-Muñoz, M., Fanjul-Moles, M. (eds) Mechanisms of Circadian Systems in Animals and Their Clinical Relevance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08945-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08945-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08944-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08945-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)