Association between outdoor artificial light at night, circadian health, and LDL-C in intracranial artery atherosclerotic stenosis

Jul 29, 2025Clinical epigenetics

Links between outdoor artificial light at night, body clock health, and 'bad' cholesterol in brain artery narrowing

AI simplified

Abstract

A total of 1010 patients were evaluated, with 32 classified as having poor control after three months.

  • Outdoor artificial light at night () exposure is associated with poorer control of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in patients with intracranial artery atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS).
  • For each increase of 1 nW/cm²/sr in ALAN intensity, the odds of poor LDL-C control increased by 2%.
  • Metabolic profiling suggests that ALAN may influence lipid metabolism through its effects on specific proteins involved in lipid transport.
  • Dim ALAN exposure in animal studies led to global hypomethylation, while melatonin treatment appeared to mitigate some of these effects.
  • The findings imply that disruptions in circadian rhythms and changes in DNA methylation may play a role in the relationship between ALAN exposure and LDL-C control.

AI simplified

Key numbers

1.02
Increase in Odds of Poor Control
Odds ratio for control status per 1 nW/cm/sr increase in exposure
86%
Global Methylation Reduction
Percentage decrease in global methylation levels in dLAN-exposed mice compared to controls
1010
Patient Cohort Size
Total number of patients included in the study

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license. Use the link below to read it at the source.

what lands in your inbox each week:

  • 📚7 fresh studies
  • 📝plain-language summaries
  • direct links to original studies
  • 🏅top journal indicators
  • 📅weekly delivery
  • 🧘‍♂️always free