The effect of undernutrition on circadian genes and rhythmic induction in NIH3T3 cells

Abstract

Nutrition is essential for health, and it has been widely studied and demonstrated to be related with circadian rhythm. To verify the effect of nutrient deficiency on the in vitro cultured cells, we had NIH3T3 cells cultured in diluted medium for 5 days, and detected the expression levels of Bmal1, Clock and Cry1 on each day. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (1PMA) was also applied to induce the circadian expression of Period genes, and the temporal expression levels before and after undernutrition treatment were analyzed by cosinor method. Our study showed that the expressions of circadian genes would be affected as soon as a nutritional deficiency occurred. This influence was not only on the expression level of Bmal1, Clock, and Cry1 genes but also on the PMA induction of circadian expression of Per1 and Per2 in the NIH3T3 cells.

Keywords:

• undernutrition
• Bmal1
• Clock
• Cry1
• Period gene
• PMA-inducted rhythm

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge membership within and support from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 41074131 to ZW), China Medical Board (CMB) (No. 88-486 to ZW), and National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2011CB711000).