Summary: The suprachiasmatic nucleus, also referred to as SCN, is the indirect "master clock" in our bodies. The SCN responds to the different amounts of light that enters the eye throughout different time during the day. The SCN also changes the information gathered into neutral signals that set the body’s temperature. Scientists have known for some time now that warm-blooded animals have fluctuations in their body temperatures. However, they have recently found out that the body temperatures actually control body cycles. It takes only a small change in internal body temperature to change the synchronization of the cellular “clocks” in the body. "Circadian rhythms in plants, simple organisms and cold-blooded animals are very sensitive to temperature, so it makes sense that over the course of evolution, this primordial mechanism could have been modified in warm-blooded animals,” said Dr. Takahashi. In a current study, researchers have used mouse cells and tissues to perform the experiments. They have found that the genes that are related to circadian functions were controlled by the fluctuation of temperatures. However, they also found that SCN cells were not sensitive to temperature.
Significance: The significance of this article is to explain about how internal body temperature can affect SCN cells. This article also shows the difference in SCN cells in both warm-blooded animals compared to SCN cells in cold-blooded animals. For example, cold-blooded animals are sensitive to a change in temperature where warm-blooded animals are not as sensitive to the change in the temperature.
No comments:
Post a Comment