A recent study done in mice suggests that the ability of the immune system to fight a bacterial infection is at least partly dependent on the time of day the bacteria enters the body. In this study mice were infected with salmonella, a bacteria which causes food poisoning, at either 10 am or 10 pm. Because mice are nocturnal the 10 am meal would be like a midnight snack for us and the 10 pm breakfast. The mice fed the 10 pm meal showed less severe symptoms or even no symptoms at all. Scientists believe this is because the internal clocks of the mice who ate at 10 am were messed up. To provide more support for this hypothesis scientists infected mice that genetically had messed up sleep cycles. These mice showed similar symptoms to the ones exposed to salmonellla at 10 am. This could be why many travelers get a cold or other minor illness when they travel overseas.
I thought this article was really interesting. I had never thought of this idea before. It will be interesting to see where this research goes in the future.
NOS Themes:
Science is based on evidence: The scientists used evidence from their experiment to back up their hypothesis.
Role of motivation and curiousity: The scientists were curious about this topic and did an experiment on it.
Link to Article:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350677/description/Response_to_bacterial_infection_depends_on_time_of_day
Futher Reading:
http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/
This is a very intriguing article! I never knew that your "metabolic clock" can help prevent or fight off infections better. I found another interesting article talking about how sleep can help fight off infections and why it's beneficial to your health. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2010/12/02/f-sleep-tips.html
ReplyDeleteI would also like to add the NOS: Science is subject to Debate and Tentative, as further research on this study and other organisms will help advance our knowledge on fighting off infections.
I also found this article very interesting and it's something I never thought about before. Though it does make a lot of sense. According to this article; http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/immune-system-lack-of-sleep , the amount of T cells in our body reduces if we don't get enough sleep. Sleep is also important while we are sick, this article explains, because then our body can put more power into fighting off the infection.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting. The link below talks about the differences between human immune systems and mouse immune systems, and also talks about the experiments scientists completed in order to find all the differences and similarities between immune systems of mice and immune systems of men.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/172/5/2731.full