Abstract
The master mammalian pacemaker in the brain controls numerous diverse physiological and behavioral processes throughout the organism. Timing information is continually transmitted from the master clock to peripheral organs to synchronize rhythmic daily oscillations of clock gene transcripts and control local physiology. To investigate the presence of peripheral clocks in the horse, quantitative real-time RT-PCR assays were designed to detect levels of equine clock genes. Expression profiles for Per2, Bmal1 and Cry1 were first determined in a synchronized equine cell line. Subsequently, expression in equine whole blood and adipose tissue was assessed. Robust circadian oscillations of Per2, Bmal1 and Cry1 were observed in vitro. A synchronized molecular clock was also demonstrated in equine adipose tissue although oscillation of Bmal1 was less robust than that of Per2 and Cry1. In contrast to previous studies in humans and rats however, there was no evidence of synchronized clock gene expression in equine peripheral blood. These studies suggest that synchronous control of clock gene oscillation in equine peripheral blood is not as tightly regulated as in other species and may reflect the influence of different evolutionary challenges modifying the function of a peripheral clock.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- BCS:
-
Body condition score
- DMEM:
-
Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium
- LD:
-
Light–dark
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
- SCN:
-
Suprachiasmatic nucleus
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Peter J. Timoney, Dr. Marilyn J. Duncan and Dr. Ernest Bailey for constructive comment on the manuscript. We also acknowledge Verda A. Davis for assistance with Graph Pad software and the staff of the University of Kentucky research farm for care and handling of the animals. All procedures involving animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). This work was supported by funds from the Kentucky Equine Research Foundation.
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An abstract containing some of these data was presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, USA, 2005, program number: 60.15. The research reported in this article (No. 05-14-129) is published in connection with a project of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and is published with approval of its director.
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Murphy, B.A., Vick, M.M., Sessions, D.R. et al. Evidence of an oscillating peripheral clock in an equine fibroblast cell line and adipose tissue but not in peripheral blood. J Comp Physiol A 192, 743–751 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0108-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0108-7