Self-sustained circadian rhythm in cultured human mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood.

Disturbed circadian rhythmicity is associated with human diseases such as sleep and mood disorders. However, study of human endogenous circadian rhythm is laborious and time-consuming, which hampers the elucidation of diseases. It has been reported that peripheral tissues exhibit circadian rhythmicity as the suprachiasmatic nucleus-the center of the biological clock. We tried to study human circadian rhythm using cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from a single collection of venous blood. Activated human PBMCs showed self-sustained circadian rhythm of clock gene expression, which indicates that they are useful for investigating human endogenous circadian rhythm.