Main description:

Circadian rhythms are such an innate part of our lives that we rarely pause to speculate why they even exist. Some studies have suggested that the disruption of the circadian system may be causal for obesity and manifestations of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). Shift-work, sleep-deprivation and bright-light-exposure at night are related to increased adiposity (obesity) and prevalence of MetS. It has been provided evidence of clock genes expression in human adipose tissue and demonstrated its association with different components of the MetS. Moreover, current studies are illustrating the particular role of different clock genes variants and their predicted haplotypes in MetS.

The purpose of "Chronobiology and Obesity" is to describe the mechanisms implicated in the interaction between chonodisruption and metabolic-related illnesses, such as obesity and MetS, with different approaches.

Contents:

Preface.- Foreword.- Discovery of the Clock mutant and the first mammalian clock gene and the links to obesity: Staring with animal #25.- An introduction to chronobiology.- Adipose tissue as a peripheral clock.- Processes Underlying Chronodisruption and their Proposed Association with illness.- Obesity and Chronodisrruption: An imbalance between energy intake and expenditure.- Sleep and MetS alterations.- Increased risk of diabetes due to obesity: does chronodisruption play a role?.- Genetics in chronobiology and obesity.- Chronobiology And Metabolic-Syndrome: From Genes To Systems Biology.- Index.