Image copyright Thinkstock A group of scientists from the universities of Manchester and Edinburgh discovered the presence of the people “Chemical Calendar”, which allows the body to follow the changing seasons and adjust to them.
Researchers who worked with the brain of sheep at different times of the year, showed a cluster of thousands of cells that may remain in winter or summer condition.
By increasing the solar day more cells are switched to summer mode and vice versa, while reducing the day they move in winter condition.
These seasonal hours are an important mechanism for the control of animal features such as breeding or hibernation, and people may be responsible for the activation of the immune system.
The study is published in the journal Current Biology.
A cluster consisting of about 17 thousand. “calendar cells,” was found in the pituitary gland, which is located at the base of the brain and released into the blood hormones that control various processes in the body.
According to the scientists, these cells have a binary system such as a computer, and they can stay in the two states, ie, producing, or “winter” substances or “summer”.
At the same time the proportion of the calendar cells residing in one state or another, change throughout the year depending on the season.
” It seems that in a short time, in the middle of winter or the middle of summer, all these cells are in one of these two states, “- said in an interview with BBC BBC professor at Manchester University, Andrew Loudon.
When it remains unclear how the body understands that occurs in autumn or spring, when the calendar cell is in the summer, and some – in winter mode.
These seasonal Watch also called tsirkannualnym rhythm, which in principle is similar to the circadian or daily rhythm, allowing the body to stay awake during the day and sleep at night.
The annual rate is responsible for phenomena such as migration, mating season or hibernation in animals. And the day, and annual rhythms depend on the amount of daylight.
In winter, when daylight hours are shorter, the body produces more sleep hormone – melatonin.
“We have long found that melatonin plays an important role in long rhythms, but how and where it works, remained a mystery – says Professor Loudon.
“Seasonal clock found in sheep is likely to exist in all vertebrates – echoes colleague, Professor Dave Burt University of Edinburgh. – The next step – is to understand how our calendar cells were fixed with the seasons “.
Though people do not have the breeding season as such, and we do not hibernate, some signs of effects on us of the seasons is still there.
So, in the course of the Cambridge University study found that in cold weather the genes responsible for immune system are activated.
But this is also a double edged sword: helping to deal with the winter virus , at the same time they may exacerbate arthritis.
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