New research showed that the internal circadian clock is influenced not by the brain only, as previously thought, but by the liver as well.
Collaboration between scientists from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience in Australia and Université Paris Cité/CNRS in France has discovered that by transplanting human liver cells in mice, the circadian cycle of mice can be modified.
Associate Professor Frédéric Gachon from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience told UQ News that when the researchers implanted human cells into the mice, their circadian rhythm changed.
“Mice are nocturnal, but when their liver cells were replaced with human cells, their circadian clock advanced by two hours—hey ate and slept at different times to mice without those transplanted cells,” Gachon said….