Dr. Senckenbergische Anatomie, Institut für Amatomie II and.
Chronobiol Int. 2014 Feb;31(1):27-36. doi: 10.3109/07420528.2013.820739. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
Humans come in different chronotypes: The phase of their sleep-wake cycle with respect to the phase of the external, sidereal cycle of night and day differs. Colloquially, the early chronotypes are addressed as "larks," the late ones as "owls." The human chronotype can be quantified in hours and minutes of local time by determining the median of the sleep phase. Demographically, early and late human chronotypes differ with respect to the stability of their rhythms and the prevalence of several widespread diseases and risk factors, such as depression, nicotine abuse, and others. Inbred mice are widely used in chronobiological research as model organisms, but up to now there was no way to chronotype them. We have developed a method to chronotype mice in hours and fractions of hours by measuring the median of activity (MoA) and have shown that different mouse strains have significantly different MoAs and, thus, chronotypes. We have further developed methods to estimate the stability of the behavioral rhythms and found that "late" mice have relatively instable rhythms. Our methods permit the use of inbred mice for investigations into the molecular and genetic background of the chronotype and the prevalence of risks and diseases that are associated with it.
他们的睡眠-觉醒周期相对于外部恒星日夜周期的相位有所不同。通俗地说，早期的生物钟类型被称为“百灵鸟”，晚期的生物钟类型被称为“猫头鹰”。通过确定睡眠阶段的中位数，可以用小时和分钟来量化人类的生物钟类型。从人口统计学的角度来看，早期和晚期的人类生物钟类型在节律的稳定性以及几种常见疾病和风险因素的流行程度上存在差异，如抑郁、尼古丁滥用等。近交系小鼠被广泛用于生物钟生物学研究作为模式生物，但到目前为止，还没有办法对它们进行生物钟类型鉴定。我们已经开发出一种通过测量活动中位数（MoA）来对小鼠进行小时和分数小时生物钟类型鉴定的方法，并表明不同的小鼠品系具有显著不同的 MoA，因此具有不同的生物钟类型。我们进一步开发了估计行为节律稳定性的方法，发现“晚”型小鼠的节律相对不稳定。我们的方法允许使用近交系小鼠进行生物钟类型及其相关风险和疾病的分子和遗传背景的研究。
