Giving up your regular late-night snack may be hard, and not just because it’s a routine.放弃你经常深夜小吃,可辛苦,不只是因为它的例行公事. The habit may genetically change an area of the brain to expect the food at that time, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered.习惯可以改变基因的一个大脑区域期望食物,当时研究者在德州大学西南医学中心在达拉斯有发现.

By training mice to eat at a time when they normally wouldn’t, the researchers found that food turns on body-clock genes in a particular area of the brain.训练老鼠在吃的时候,他们通常不会考虑,研究人员发现,原来食品对人体的生物钟基因在某一特定的大脑区域. Even when the food stopped coming, the genes continued to activate at the expected mealtime.甚至当食品停下来,继续基因启动于预期进餐时间.

“This might be an entrance to the whole mysterious arena of how metabolic conditions in an animal can synchronize themselves with a body clock,” said Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, professor of molecular genetics and senior author of the study."这可能是一个入口,整个舞台的神秘如何代谢条件,在动物身上可以同步与生物钟博士说,"四五yanagisawa教授,分子遗传学和高级研究的作者之一.
 
UT Southwestern researchers led by Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa (left), professor of molecular genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and including S. Clay Williams, an HHMI research specialist, found in mice that food turns on body-clock genes in a particular area of the brain.德州大学西南医学博士领导的研究组,四五yanagisawa(左)教授分子遗传学与霍华德休斯医学研究所的调查,并包括粘土节威廉姆斯霍华德休斯医学研究所的一个研究专家,发现,在老鼠的食物轮流对人体生物钟基因在某一特定的大脑区域. Even when the food cycle was interrupted, the genes continued to activate at the expected mealtime.甚至当食物循环被中断时,基因持续激活,在预期进餐时间.
 
The UT Southwestern researchers report their findings in the August 8, 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.德州大学的研究人员报告了他们的发现,在8月8日2006年问题的法律程序的国家科学院学报上.

The daily ups-and-downs of waking, eating and other bodily processes are known as circadian rhythms, which are regulated by many internal and external forces.每日的波动和起伏,醒来时,饮食及身体其他过程被称为生物节律,管制,其中许多是由内部和外部的力量. One class of genes involved in these cycles is known as Period or Per genes.一类基因参与这种循环称为内或每个基因.

When food is freely available, the strongest controlling force is light, which sets a body’s sleep/wake cycle, among other functions.食物时,是免费的,强大的控制力,是轻,集体的睡眠/觉醒周期,在其他功能. Light acts on an area in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN.轻行为,对一个地区在大脑中视交叉上核或视交叉.

But because destroying the SCN doesn’t affect the body clock that paces feeding behavior, the circadian pacemaker for feeding must be somewhere else, Dr. Yanagisawa said.但由于破坏营养,不影响人体生物钟桥牌摄食,节律起搏器饲必须在别处,yanagisawa博士说.

To find the answer, his group did a simple but labor-intensive experiment.为了寻找答案,他的小组做一个简单的,但劳动密集型的实验. The scientists set the mice on a regular feeding schedule, then examined their brain tissue to find where Per genes were turned on in sync with feeding times.科学家定于老鼠经常喂养时间表然后检查其脑组织中发现,每个基因被开启同步饲喂次数.

The researchers put the mice on a 12-hour light/dark cycle, and provided food for four hours in the middle of the light portion.研究人员把老鼠进行为期12小时的光/暗周期并提供餐饮四个小时,中间轻的一部分.

Because mice normally feed at night, this pattern is similar to humans eating at inappropriate times.因为小鼠饲料中,通常在夜间,这种模式是类似于人类吃在不适当的时间. Dysfunctional eating patterns play a role in human obesity, particularly in the nocturnal eating often seen in obese people, the researchers note.饮食失调的模式发挥作用,在人类肥胖,尤其是在夜间进食常见肥胖的人,研究者注.

The mice soon fell into a pattern of searching for food two hours before each feeding time.老鼠很快又陷入了一个模式,为寻找食物之前两小时,每饲时间. They also flipped their normal day/night behavior, ignoring the natural cue that day is their usual time to sleep.他们还翻出其正常昼/夜行为,无视自然不出所料,当天是他们惯常的时间去睡觉.

After several days, the researchers found that the daily activation cycle of Per genes in the SCN was not affected by the abnormal feeding pattern.几天后,研究者发现,每天激活周期的每个基因的线虫是没有受异常喂养模式.

However, in a few different areas of the brain, particularly a center called the dorsomedial hypothamalic nucleus or DMH, the Per genes turned on strongly in sync with feeding time after seven days.不过,在少数大脑的不同区域,特别是一个中心,被称为背hypothamalic细胞核或5,5,每基因转强同步喂养时间后七天.

When the mice subsequently went two days without food, the genes continued to turn on in sync with the expected feeding time.当小鼠随后两天,没有食物,基因持续亮着同步,与预期的饲喂时间.

“They started to show the same pattern of anticipatory behaviors several hours before the previously scheduled time of feeding,” said Dr. Yanagisawa, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator."他们开始表现出同样的格局预支行为之前几个小时以前准时吃饭,"说:yanagisawa博士,美国霍华德休斯医学研究所研究员. “So somewhere in the body, they clearly remembered this time of day.”"因此,在某个机构,他们清楚地记得这一天中的时间."

Upcoming research will focus on how the centers that control various body clocks communicate with each other, Dr. Yanagisawa said.此次研究将焦点放在如何中心控制各种钟表身体与对方沟通,yanagisawa博士说.

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were: Dr. Michihiro Mieda, former postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and currently of Tokyo Medical and Dental University; S. Clay Williams, an HHMI research specialist; and Dr. James Richardson, professor of pathology.其他德州大学的研究人员参与研究的有:博士michihiromieda,前博士后研究员霍华德休斯医学研究所工作,现任日本东京医学和牙科大学;节粘土威廉姆斯,霍华德休斯医学研究所的研究专家;博士和詹姆斯理查森,病理学教授. Dr. Kohichi Tanaka of Tokyo Medical and Dental University also participated.博士kohichi田中东京医学和牙科大学也参加了会议.

The work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Human Frontier Science Program, the Keck Foundation, the Perot Family Foundation, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the Narishige Kagaku Foundation, the Ichiro Kanehara Foundation and the Suzuken Memorial Foundation.该工作得到了霍华德休斯医学研究所,人类前沿科学计划,沃尔玛基金会该珀罗家族基金会,日本科学技术振兴机构,成重kagaku公司基金会该kanehara铃木基金会和suzuken纪念基金会.