Chronobiological aspects of blood glucose regulation: a new scope for the study of diabetes mellitus.

The levels of blood glucose undergo circadian variations in every species studied. Such rhythm is the consequence of the oscillation in the rate of provision and consumption of glucose. The liver plays an important role in this rhythm, retaining or releasing glucose from or to the circulation. The driving forces for this glucose flow come from outside (food intake) and inside (neural and hormonal control) the body. This blood glucose control might be referred as homeorheusis rather than homeostasis. The final regulatory adjustment of this precise and delicate mechanism is probably located around the suprachiasmatic and other hypothalamic nuclei. In diseases such as diabetes mellitus, where there is an alteration in the circadian rhythm of blood glucose, one of the main goals of treatment must be its restoration to normal levels.