Chronobiology internationalDec 21, 2020

How the body’s internal clock and metabolism influence each other over time

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Mar 25, 2026

Abstract

The endogenous timekeeping system in organisms coordinates behavioral, physiological, and metabolic processes with a periodicity close to 24 hours.

Circadian rhythms are regulated by central and peripheral clocks that maintain synchronization across various organs and tissues.
There is a potential reciprocal regulation between the circadian clock and nutrient metabolism, indicating a complex interplay.
Feeding time may serve as an external cue that fine-tunes the timing of circadian rhythms in metabolic clocks.
Understanding how food intake timing and diet composition influence metabolic rhythms is crucial for addressing circadian misalignment-related metabolic disorders.
Recent advancements highlight the relationship between the circadian clock and nutrient metabolism, emphasizing the need for further exploration of metabolic feedback signals.

Simplified

In most organisms ranging from cyanobacteria to humans, the endogenous timekeeping system temporally coordinates the behavioral, physiological, and metabolic processes with a periodicity close to 24 h. The timing of these daily rhythms is orchestrated by the synchronized oscillations of both the central pacemaker in the brain and the peripheral clocks located across multiple organs and tissues. A growing body of evidence suggests that the central circadian clock and peripheral clocks residing in the metabolically active tissues are incredibly well coordinated to confer coherent metabolic homeostasis. The interplay between nutrient metabolism and circadian rhythms can occur at various levels supported by the molecular clock network, multiple systemic mechanisms, and the neuroendocrine signaling pathways. While studies suggest the reciprocal regulation between circadian clock and metabolism, it is important to understand the precise mechanisms and the underlying pathways involved in the cross-talk among circadian oscillators and diverse metabolic networks. In addition to the internal synchronization of the metabolic rhythms, feeding time is considered as a potential external synchronization cue that fine tunes the timing of the circadian rhythms in metabolic peripheral clocks. A deeper understanding of how the timing of food intake and the diet composition drive the tissue-specific metabolic rhythms across the body is concomitantly important to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the metabolic disorders arising from circadian misalignment. This review summarizes the recent advancements in the circadian clock regulation of nutrient metabolism and discusses the current understanding of the metabolic feedback signals that link energy metabolism with the circadian clock.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View Full Text ↗

Funding

Competing interests

Disclosure statement . The authors report no conflicts of interest.

PubMed

How the body’s internal clock and metabolism influence each other over time

Abstract

Full Text

Funding

Competing interests

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief