Cooperation between muscle and liver circadian clocks, key to controlling glucose metabolism

An international study on the effect of circadian clocks in different tissues shows that there is a minimal network required for the control of glucose levels in the body. This finding has clear implications for diabetes and other age-related diseases. Collaborative work by teams at the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences ( MELIS ) at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), University of California, Irvine (UCI), and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has shown that interplay between circadian clocks in liver and skeletal muscle controls glucose metabolism. The findings reveal that local clock function in each tissue is not enough for whole-body glucose metabolism but also requires signals from feeding and fasting cycles to properly maintain glucose levels in the body. Understanding the components underlying glucose balance has clear implications for metabolic diseases such as diabetes or other age-related disorders. Circadian clocks are present in virtually every cell in the body. They align biological processes to a 24-hour cycle to synchronize physical, mental, and behavioural changes.