Chronobiology and metabolic syndrome : from genes to systems biology

Abstract

The major function of the circadian system is the internal cycling of physiologic and metabolic events. In the last years, there has been an exponential increase in our understanding of the role of clock-related genes in Metabolic-syndrome (MetS) -related phenotypes. Nevertheless, our understanding about how the components of the circadian system interact each other to modulate the metabolism and cardiovascular system remains a major challenge. Systems biology introduces a new concept for revealing the pathogenesis of human disorders and suggests the presence of common physiologic processes and molecular networks influencing the risk of a disease. In this review, we use systems biology approaches to integrate genomic, molecular, and physiological data to decipher putative circadian rhythmic pathways suspected to play a role in the etiology of the metabolic syndrome (MetS)-associated phenotypes with a main focus in obesity and as other authors are discussing diverse related topics, we will discuss the findings of our own group.