Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2025
In Vitro Bioluminescence Assay to Characterize Circadian Rhythm in Mammary Epithelial Cells
Published on: September 28, 2017
The Cardiac Circadian Clock: Implications for Cardiovascular Disease and its Treatment
1Division of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Insights
Cardiovascular physiology, including blood pressure and heart function, shows daily rhythms. Understanding the cardiomyocyte circadian clock is crucial for preventing and treating heart disease.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Chronobiology
- Molecular Cardiology
Background:
- Physiological processes, including cardiovascular function, exhibit robust daily fluctuations.
- Cardiovascular tissues display significant molecular and biochemical differences between day and night.
- These diurnal variations influence the risk and severity of cardiovascular events like arrhythmias and myocardial infarction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comprehensive review of the cardiomyocyte circadian clock in health and disease.
- To highlight the role of circadian clocks in regulating cardiovascular function and dysfunction.
- To emphasize the need for chronobiological considerations in cardiovascular disease management.
Main Methods:
- Comprehensive literature review of basic, translational, and epidemiological studies.
- Analysis of existing research on circadian clocks in cardiomyocytes.
- Synthesis of current understanding of molecular and physiological rhythms in the heart.
Main Results:
- Cell-autonomous circadian clocks govern critical biological processes in the heart.
- Circadian rhythms impact cardiovascular health, disease risk, and pathogenesis.
- Significant differences exist in cardiovascular tissues at the molecular level between day and night.
Conclusions:
- The cardiomyocyte circadian clock plays a vital role in cardiovascular health and disease.
- Chronobiological insights are essential for developing effective cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment strategies.
- Further research integrating circadian biology into cardiology is warranted.
Abstract:
Virtually all aspects of physiology fluctuate with respect to the time of day. This is beautifully exemplified by cardiovascular physiology, for which blood pressure and electrophysiology exhibit robust diurnal oscillations. At molecular/biochemical levels (eg, transcription, translation, signaling, metabolism), cardiovascular-relevant tissues (such as the heart) are profoundly different during the day vs the night. Unfortunately, this in turn contributes toward 24-hour rhythms in both risk of adverse event onset (eg, arrhythmias, myocardial infarction) and pathogenesis severity (eg, extent of ischemic damage). Accumulating evidence indicates that cell-autonomous timekeeping mechanisms, termed circadian clocks, temporally govern biological processes known to play critical roles in cardiovascular function/dysfunction. In this paper, a comprehensive review of our current understanding of the cardiomyocyte circadian clock during both health and disease is detailed. Unprecedented basic, translational, and epidemiologic studies support a need to implement chronobiological considerations in strategies designed for both prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Related Concept Videos
02:19Circadian Rhythms and Gene Regulation
01:29Pathophysiology of Cardiac Performance
01:19Electrophysiology of Normal Cardiac Rhythm
01:18Cardiovascular Drugs: Classification based on Therapeutic Indications
01:16ECG Interpretation of Arrhythmias I: Sinus Arrhythmias
Types of Arrhythmias
Sinus Node Arrhythmias
Sinus Bradycardia: Originating from the sinoatrial (SA) node, sinus bradycardia involves slower impulses, resulting in a heart rate of less than 60 beats per minute (bpm). Causes include sleep, vagal stimulation, beta-blockers, hypothyroidism,...
01:28Mechanism of Cardiac Arrhythmias