Dr. Bokai Zhu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine authored a review article in the journal Physiology  entitled,

Logic of the Temporal Compartmentalization of the Hepatic Metabolic Cycle.”

doi: 10.1152/physiol.00003.2022. Epub 2022 Jun 6. PMID: 35658626; PMCID: PMC9394779.

https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00003.2022

Bokai Zhu, PhD

Abstract

The mammalian liver must cope with various metabolic and physiological changes that normally recur every day and result primarily from rest-activity and fasting-feeding cycles. In this article, I present evidence supporting a temporal compartmentalization of rhythmic hepatic metabolic processes into four main clusters: regulation of energy homeostasis, maintenance of information integrity, immune response, and genetic information flow. I further review literatures and discuss how both the circadian and the newly discovered 12-h ultradian clock work together to regulate these four temporally separated processes in mouse liver, which, interestingly, is largely uncoupled from the liver zonation regulation.