Time-restricted eating reshapes gene expression throughout the body

There can never be enough studies on eating and food! A craving that never ends! Are you hungry already? 😊

"... scientists show in mice how time-restricted eating influences gene expression across more than 22 regions of the body and brain. ...
The findings ... have implications for a wide range of health conditions where time-restricted eating has shown potential benefits, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer. ...

After seven weeks, tissue samples were collected from 22 organ groups and the brain at different times of the day or night and analyzed for genetic changes. Samples included 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 respond to time-restricted eating. ...
Nearly 40 percent of genes in the adrenal gland, hypothalamus, and pancreas were affected by time-restricted eating. These organs are important for hormonal regulation. ...

not all sections of the digestive tract were affected equally. While genes involved in the upper two portions of the small intestine—the duodenum and jejunum—were activated by time-restricted eating, the ileum, at the lower end of the small intestine, was not. ... The researchers also found that time-restricted eating aligned the circadian rhythms of multiple organs of the body. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• 80% of genes are differentially expressed or rhythmic under TRF in at least one tissue

• TRF decreases genes involved in inflammatory signaling and glycerolipid metabolism

• TRF increases genes involved in RNA processing, protein folding, and autophagy

• TRF causes multi-tissue rewiring of BCAA, glucose, and lipid metabolism

Summary

Time-restricted feeding (TRF) is an emerging behavioral nutrition intervention that involves a daily cycle of feeding and fasting. In both animals and humans, TRF has pleiotropic health benefits that arise from multiple organ systems, yet the molecular basis of TRF-mediated benefits is not well understood. Here, we subjected mice to isocaloric ad libitum feeding (ALF) or TRF of a western diet and examined gene expression changes in samples taken from 22 organs and brain regions collected every 2 h over a 24-h period. We discovered that TRF profoundly impacts gene expression. Nearly 80% of all genes show differential expression or rhythmicity under TRF in at least one tissue. Functional annotation of these changes revealed tissue- and pathway-specific impacts of TRF. These findings and resources provide a critical foundation for future mechanistic studies and will help to guide human time-restricted eating (TRE) interventions to treat various disease conditions with or without pharmacotherapies."

Time-restricted eating reshapes gene expression throughout the body - Salk Institute for Biological Studies Salk researchers find that timing calorie intake synchronizes circadian rhythms across multiple systems in mice

Diurnal transcriptome landscape of a multi-tissue response to time-restricted feeding in mammals (open access)

Graphical abstract