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Table 1 Examples of circadian rhythms in the immune system and the correspondent peaks and troughs of these oscillations

From: A circadian based inflammatory response – implications for respiratory disease and treatment

Organism

Oscillating component

Peak

Trough

Ref.

Mouse

Number of Ly6Chi monocyte in blood and spleen

ZT4-ZT8

ZT12-ZT24

(Nguyen et al. 2013)

Mouse

Circulating total leukocyte counts

ZT5

ZT13

(Scheiermann et al. 2012)

Mouse

Circulating HSCs and their progenitors

ZT5

ZT17

(Mendez-Ferrer et al. 2008)

Mouse

Number of LSK cells per ml of blood

ZT5

ZT13

(Mendez-Ferrer et al. 2008; Lucas et al. 2008)

Mouse

Activation of NF-κB

ZT6

ZT18

(Spengler et al. 2012)

Mouse

TNF-α and IL-6 secreted by spleens harvested around the clock and stimulated with LPS

CT8

CT20 (TNFα) CT16 (IL-6)

(Keller et al. 2009)

Mouse

Abundance of B cells and macrophages in the spleen

CT8

CT16

(Keller et al. 2009)

Mouse

Cytokine responses to LPS IL-1β, IL-6, MCP-1 and MIP1alpha

ZT11

ZT19

(Marpegan et al. 2009)

Mouse

TLR9 mRNA in macrophages

ZT11

ZT3

(Silver et al. 2012)

Mouse

Cytokine responses to LPS: IL-6, IL-12, CCL5, CXCL1 and CCL2

ZT12

ZT0

(Gibbs et al. 2012)

Mouse

Recruitment of leukocytes from the blood to tissues

ZT13

ZT5

(Scheiermann et al. 2012)

Mouse

ICAM1 protein abundance in muscle

ZT13

ZT5

(Scheiermann et al. 2012)

Mouse

Ccl2 mRNA abundance in cremasteric endothelial cells

ZT13

ZT1

(Scheiermann et al. 2012)

Mouse

CXCR4 expression in bone marrow LSK cells

ZT13

ZT5

(Lucas et al. 2008)

Mouse

TLR9 mRNA and protein abundance in the spleen

ZT19

ZT7

(Silver et al. 2012)

Mouse

Phagocytic activity of neutrophils

ZT20

ZT8

(Hriscu 2004)

Mouse

CXCL12 content in bone marrow extracellular fluids

ZT21

ZT9

(Mendez-Ferrer et al. 2008)

Human

Counts of peripheral monocytes

12:00 am

8:00 am

(Born et al. 1997)

Human

Counts of peripheral Lymphocytes, B-cells, T-cells, T-helper, T-suppressor

2:00 am-3:00 am

11:00 am

(Born et al. 1997)

Human

Circulating eosinophils

4:00 am

12:00 pm

(Haus and Smolensky 1999)

Human

Circulating lymphocytes

12:00 am-4:00 am

8:00 am

(Haus and Smolensky 1999)

Human

Counts of peripheral NK

11:00 am-6:00 pm

2:00 am

(Born et al. 1997)

Human

CD4+ T helper, CD8+ cytotoxic T cells: naïve, central memory, effector memory

1:31 pm-2:41 pm

2:00 pm

(Dimitrov et al. 2009)

Human

Effector CD8+ T cells

3:34 pm

3:00 am

(Dimitrov et al. 2009)

Human

Circulating monocytes

8:00 pm

8 am

(Haus and Smolensky 1999)

Human

HSC / progenitor cells in peripheral blood

8:00 pm

8:00 am

(Lucas et al. 2008)

Human

Circulating neutrophils

8:00 pm

8:00 am

(Haus and Smolensky 1999)

  1. Note that in animal research, time of day does not correspond to “clock-time” but it is instead relative to the time of day at which lights are turned on and off in the animal facilities. Thus, ZT stands for Zeitgeber Time and ZT0 corresponds to the time of day when lights are turned-on and if mice are in a LD12:12 (12 h of light and 12 h of dark) ZT12 corresponds to time of day when lights are turned-off. If animals are in constant conditions (normally constant dark, but it could be constant light) then CT is used instead of ZT. CT stands for Circadian Time and CT0 corresponds to the time of day when animals start their resting time (as if lights were turned-on) and CT12 corresponds to the time of day when their activity time starts (as if lights were turned off). In the human studies that we have listed here, the authors provide “clock-times”