Circadian clock study of mice tail tendons

Tendons are prominent members of the family of fibrous connective tissues (FCTs), which collectively are the most abundant tissues in vertebrates and have crucial roles in transmitting mechanical force and linking organs. Tendon diseases are among the most common arthropathy disorders; thus knowledge of tendon gene regulation is essential for a complete understanding of FCT biology. Here we show autonomous circadian rhythms in mouse tendon and primary human tenocytes, controlled by an intrinsic molecular circadian clock. Time-series microarrays identified the first circadian transcriptome of murine tendon, revealing that 4.6% of the transcripts (745 genes) are expressed in a circadian manner.肌腱是纤维结缔组织（fibrous connective tissues, FCTs）家族的重要成员，纤维结缔组织整体是脊椎动物体内含量最丰富的组织，在传递机械力及连接器官方面发挥关键作用。肌腱疾病属于最常见的关节病变之一，因此解析肌腱的基因调控机制，对于全面阐明纤维结缔组织的生物学特性至关重要。本研究证实，小鼠肌腱及原代人肌腱细胞中存在自主昼夜节律，该节律由内在的分子生物钟调控。通过时间序列微阵列分析，本研究首次鉴定出小鼠肌腱的昼夜节律转录组，结果显示4.6%的转录本（共745个基因）以昼夜节律模式表达。