March 28, 2024

How Intermittent Fasting Extends Life Spans – Time-Restricted Eating Reshapes Gene Expression Throughout the Body

Time-restricted eating improves gene expression throughout the body. In this illustration, the Ferris wheel displays the interconnected organ systems working efficiently during time-restricted eating, which is represented by the clock in the middle. Credit: Salk Institute
Salk scientists discover that timing calorie consumption integrates circadian rhythms throughout multiple systems in mice.
Various studies have actually shown health advantages of time-restricted eating including increase in life span in lab research studies. Now, Salk researchers reveal in mice how time-restricted eating affects gene expression throughout more than 22 regions of the body and brain.
The findings, published in Cell Metabolism on January 3, 2023, have implications for a wide variety of health conditions where time-restricted consuming has actually revealed prospective advantages, including diabetes, heart illness, cancer, and hypertension.

Satchidanananda Panda. Credit: Salk Institute
” We discovered that there is a system-wide, molecular effect of time-restricted consuming in mice,” says Professor Satchidananda Panda, senior author and holder of the Rita and Richard Atkinson Chair at Salk. “Our outcomes unlock for looking more carefully at how this dietary intervention triggers genes involved in specific diseases, such as cancer.”
For the study, 2 groups of mice were fed the exact same high-calorie diet plan. One group was given complimentary access to the food. The other group was restricted to consuming within a feeding window of 9 hours every day. After seven weeks, tissue samples were collected from 22 organ groups and the brain at different times of the day or night and evaluated for genetic modifications. Samples consisted of tissues from the liver, stomach, lungs, heart, adrenal gland, hypothalamus, different parts of the kidney and intestine, and different areas of the brain.
The authors found that 70 percent of mouse genes react to time-restricted consuming.
” By altering the timing of food, we had the ability to alter the gene expression not simply in the gut or in the liver, however also in countless genes in the brain,” says Panda.
Nearly 40 percent of genes in the adrenal gland, hypothalamus, and pancreas were affected by time-restricted eating. The outcomes provide assistance to how time-restricted consuming may help handle these illness.
Remarkably, not all areas of the gastrointestinal system were impacted equally. While genes associated with the upper 2 parts of the small intestinal tract– the duodenum and jejunum– were activated by time-restricted consuming, the ileum, at the lower end of the little intestine, was not. This finding could open a new line of research study to study how jobs with shiftwork, which disrupts our 24-hour body clock (called the circadian rhythm) effect digestive illness and cancers. Previous research study by Pandas team showed that time-restricted eating enhanced the health of firefighters, who are typically move workers.
The researchers also found that time-restricted eating lined up the circadian rhythms of multiple organs of the body.
” Circadian rhythms are everywhere in every cell,” says Panda. “We discovered that time-restricted consuming synchronized the body clocks to have two major waves: one throughout fasting, and another just after eating. We think this allows the body to coordinate different processes.”
Next, Pandas team will take a more detailed take a look at the effects of time-restricted eating on specific conditions or systems linked in the study, such as atherosclerosis, which is a hardening of the arteries that is often a precursor to heart illness and stroke, in addition to persistent kidney illness.
Referral: “Diurnal transcriptome landscape of a multi-tissue reaction to time-restricted feeding in mammals” by Shaunak Deota, Terry Lin, Amandine Chaix, April Williams, Hiep Le, Hugo Calligaro, Ramesh Ramasamy, Ling Huang and Satchidananda Panda, 3 January 2023, Cell Metabolism.DOI: 10.1016/ j.cmet.2022.12.006.
Other authors consist of Shaunak Deota, Terry Lin, April Williams, Hiep Le, Hugo Calligaro, Ramesh Ramasamy, and Ling Huang of Salk; and Amandine Chaix of the University of Utah.
The research study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants CA258221, CA014195, ag065993, and dk115214) and the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance.

Time-restricted consuming improves gene expression throughout the body. In this illustration, the Ferris wheel shows the interconnected organ systems working efficiently during time-restricted consuming, which is represented by the clock in the middle. Now, Salk scientists reveal in mice how time-restricted consuming influences gene expression throughout more than 22 areas of the body and brain. Nearly 40 percent of genes in the adrenal gland, hypothalamus, and pancreas were affected by time-restricted consuming. While genes included in the upper 2 portions of the little intestinal tract– the duodenum and jejunum– were activated by time-restricted eating, the ileum, at the lower end of the little intestinal tract, was not.