MINI REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Experimental Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1606242
Peripheral Clocks and Systemic Zeitgeber Interactions: From Molecular Mechanisms to Circadian Precision Medicine
Provisionally accepted
- Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
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Circadian rhythms orchestrate nearly every aspect of human physiology through a hierarchical network of clocks. While the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) serves as the central pacemaker, peripheral clocks within the brain, heart, liver, gut, pancreas, adipose tissue, adrenal glands, lungs, and skeletal muscle independently regulate organ-specific functions. These autonomous oscillators, governed by transcriptional-translational feedback loops of core clock genes, align with environmental and physiological zeitgebers such as light, feeding, temperature, and hormones. Disruption of this temporal organization-through shift work, genetic alterations, or lifestyle factors-drives systemic misalignment, contributing to metabolic disease, cardiovascular dysfunction, neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune imbalance. This review explores the molecular mechanisms and physiological roles of peripheral clocks across organ systems, emphasizing their interplay with the SCN and zeitgebers. We also highlight emerging chronotherapeutic strategies that exploit circadian biology to optimize treatment outcomes. Understanding inter-organ circadian communication is key to unlocking personalized interventions and restoring systemic rhythmicity for health.
Keywords: circadian rhythms, Peripheral clocks, Zeitgebers, Chronotherapy, metabolic disease, Cardiovascular dysfunction, neurodegeneration, Cancer
Received: 08 Apr 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bautista, Ojeda-Mosquera, Ordóñez-Lozada and López-Cortés. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrés López-Cortés, Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
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