Cargando…

Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters

Seasonal changes impact the melatonin production and immuno-activities in vertebrates. This is believed due to the photoperiodic alterations of the different seasons which impact the functions of pineal gland. The short photoperiod promotes pineal melatonin production. As a result, during the winter...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Xu, Xiaoying, Liu, Xiaoyan, Ma, Shuran, Xu, Ya, Xu, Ying, Guo, Xiazhen, Li, Dekui
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6017911/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29558391
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules23030703
_version_ 1783334854434226176
author Xu, Xiaoying
Liu, Xiaoyan
Ma, Shuran
Xu, Ya
Xu, Ying
Guo, Xiazhen
Li, Dekui
author_facet Xu, Xiaoying
Liu, Xiaoyan
Ma, Shuran
Xu, Ya
Xu, Ying
Guo, Xiazhen
Li, Dekui
author_sort Xu, Xiaoying
collection PubMed
description Seasonal changes impact the melatonin production and immuno-activities in vertebrates. This is believed due to the photoperiodic alterations of the different seasons which impact the functions of pineal gland. The short photoperiod promotes pineal melatonin production. As a result, during the winter, animals have significantly higher levels of melatonin than in summer. However, the seasonal changes also include temperature changes. This factor has never been systemically investigated in animals. In the current study, we observed that increased temperature had limited influence on melatonin production. In contrast, cold temperature is the major factor to induce melatonin production in hamsters. Cold temperature per se can upregulate the expressions of melatonin synthetic gene AANAT and ASMT, which are the important enzymes for melatonin biosynthesis. The elevated melatonin levels induced by the cold exposure in hamster in turn, improve the immuno-responses of the animals with increased levels of IL1, 6, and 10 as well CD3. In addition, melatonin as a potent antioxidant and thermogenic agent would improve the survival chance of animals during cold weather.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6017911
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-60179112018-11-13 Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters Xu, Xiaoying Liu, Xiaoyan Ma, Shuran Xu, Ya Xu, Ying Guo, Xiazhen Li, Dekui Molecules Article Seasonal changes impact the melatonin production and immuno-activities in vertebrates. This is believed due to the photoperiodic alterations of the different seasons which impact the functions of pineal gland. The short photoperiod promotes pineal melatonin production. As a result, during the winter, animals have significantly higher levels of melatonin than in summer. However, the seasonal changes also include temperature changes. This factor has never been systemically investigated in animals. In the current study, we observed that increased temperature had limited influence on melatonin production. In contrast, cold temperature is the major factor to induce melatonin production in hamsters. Cold temperature per se can upregulate the expressions of melatonin synthetic gene AANAT and ASMT, which are the important enzymes for melatonin biosynthesis. The elevated melatonin levels induced by the cold exposure in hamster in turn, improve the immuno-responses of the animals with increased levels of IL1, 6, and 10 as well CD3. In addition, melatonin as a potent antioxidant and thermogenic agent would improve the survival chance of animals during cold weather. MDPI 2018-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6017911/ /pubmed/29558391 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules23030703 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Xu, Xiaoying
Liu, Xiaoyan
Ma, Shuran
Xu, Ya
Xu, Ying
Guo, Xiazhen
Li, Dekui
Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title_full Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title_fullStr Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title_full_unstemmed Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title_short Association of Melatonin Production with Seasonal Changes, Low Temperature, and Immuno-Responses in Hamsters
title_sort association of melatonin production with seasonal changes, low temperature, and immuno-responses in hamsters
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6017911/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29558391
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules23030703
work_keys_str_mv AT xuxiaoying associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT liuxiaoyan associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT mashuran associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT xuya associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT xuying associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT guoxiazhen associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters
AT lidekui associationofmelatoninproductionwithseasonalchangeslowtemperatureandimmunoresponsesinhamsters