CIRCADIAN RHYTHM REPROGRAMMING DURING LUNG INFLAMMATION

Circadian rhythms are known to regulate immune responses in healthy animals, but it is unclear whether they persist during acute illnesses where clock gene expression is disrupted by systemic inflammation. Here, we use a genome-wide approach to investigate circadian gene and metabolite expression in the lungs of endotoxemic mice and find that novel cellular and molecular circadian rhythms are elicited in this setting. The endotoxin-specific circadian program exhibits unique features, including a divergent group of rhythmic genes and metabolites compared to the basal state and a distinct periodicity and phase distribution. At the cellular level endotoxin treatment also alters circadian rhythms of leukocyte counts within the lung in a bmal1-dependent manner, such that granulocytes rather than lymphocytes become the dominant oscillating cell type. Our results show that inflammation produces a complex reorganization of cellular and molecular circadian rhythms that are relevant to early events in lung injury.