The kidney has circadian clock and it influences the circadian rhythm of the whole body.

What is it about?

The kidney is the body's main filter of the blood. Yet, it contains a strong circadian clock. The question is if the kidney remains to be a local clock or if it can influence the overall circadian activities of the body. We sought to answer this question under a pathological condition of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Chronic kidney damage can be induced by adenine feeding, and the damage is evident through chronic upregulation and spatial disorganization of PER2::LUC expression. The circadian rhythm in CKD kidney is less robust and longer in period length, however the CKD SCN exhibits intact rhythm comparable to control. Nonetheless, the behavioral circadian rhythm of CKD animal is less robust and slightly longer in period, reflecting the changes in the kidney. This implies that under pathological conditions, the kidney clock can influence the overall circadian rhythmicity, probably via the SCN.

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Why is it important?

CKD has been known to cause sleep disturbances. The current study indicates that such disturbance may reflect dysfunction in circadian clocks. Furthermore, this work enables us to consider a possibility where a peripheral clock erroneously feedbacks to the master clock and disrupts rhythms at the behavioral level of sleep/wake regulation.

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