Investigating the role of the myeloid circadian clock in aging

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
The circadian clock regulates daily rhythms across the entire organism, ranging from rhythmic gene transcription to daily cycles in mood. The intrinsic cellular clock consists of a transcription-translation feedback loop between the heterodimers Bmal/Clock and Per/Cry. In healthy immune cells, this clock drives circadian rhythms in cell trafficking, phagocytosis, and cytokine release among many other homeostatic activities. Animals lacking innate immune cell rhythms experience higher rates of sepsis and mortality during an infection. Since aging is often characterized by a loss of homeostatic immune functions, we hypothesized that dysfunction of the cellular circadian clock with aging contributes dysfunction in the immune system and an increased risk for disease. In this study, we used transcriptomic approaches to identify rhythmically expressed genes and pathways and observed that the core cellular clock remains rhythmic with aging. While aged animals still expressed a high number of rhythmic genes, the coordination of these rhythms became impaired. We also used genetic approaches to disrupt the intrinsic cellular clock and observed mild cognitive impairment in middle aged animals. These results suggest that the circadian clock may contribute to age-associated dysfunction in systemic inflammation.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2019; ©2019
Publication date 2019; 2019
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Pasternak, Connie
Degree supervisor Andreasson, Katrin
Degree supervisor Huguenard, John
Thesis advisor Andreasson, Katrin
Thesis advisor Huguenard, John
Thesis advisor Reimer, Richard J
Thesis advisor Wyss-Coray, Anton
Thesis advisor Lecea, Luis de
Degree committee member Reimer, Richard J
Degree committee member Wyss-Coray, Anton
Degree committee member Lecea, Luis de
Associated with Stanford University, Neurosciences Program.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Connie Pasternak.
Note Submitted to the Neurosciences Program.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2019 by Connie Pasternak
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-SA).

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