Germaine Cornélissen

Circadian Adrenocortical Cycle and the Central Nervous System

Metabolic and adjustive networks (Halberg et al., 1939, 1979a), as well as complementary networks for growth, repair and reproduction, are all characterized by interrcodulating rhythmic components of several orders and frequencies, A critical node in the interdigitating networks is the adrenal cortex, A spontaneous adrenal cortical cycle is preparatory to activity (Halberg, 1931, 1933; Halberg and Visscher, 1952; Halberg et al., 1951, 1953a, 1959) as well as responsive to factors from without (Pincus, 1943).

Cardiovascular rhythmometry during pregnancy and early extrauterine life

The broad rhythmic structure of blood pressure and heart rate in clinically healthy newborns and in their mothers before and after delivery is investigated. A room-restricted automatic monitor manufactured by Nippon Colin is used to measure, oscillometrically, the systolic, mean arterial, and diastolic blood pressure and the heart rate of pregnant women before and after delivery. A neonatal instrument also manufactured by Nippon Colin is used to monitor newborns. Each data series is plotted as a function of time for identification of outliers values outside the range of the mean +or-3 standard deviations. Each series is analyzed by a single cosinor using all data (raw data series) and after elimination of outliers (edited data series). The results of this study are further compared to results from other collaborative international studies of pregnant women and newborns.<<ETX>>

CHAPTER 213 – Peptide Chronomics

Chronomics, the mapping of broad time structures (chronomes), provides the indispensable control whether studies aim at examining the effect of a given intervention such as dietary restriction, at optimizing the timing of administration of treatment, or at assessing an elevated risk of developing a disease such as cancer. An increase in circadian amplitude exceeding any effect on the mean is likely to yield controversial results from single spot checks. An analog of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH 1–17), administered in the evening may help patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but may be ineffective when given around awakening. A daytime single sample of prolactin may not be discriminatory in assessing breast cancer risk when large differences are found during the rest span. The merits of assessing peptide chronomics are perhaps best illustrated by the facts that a peptide drug may have a major effect at one circadian stage but not at another, that a major effect on a polypeptide may be exerted again at one circadian stage but not at another, and that, by the design and the software of chronomics, relatively small numbers of patients are needed to validate such effects by inferential statistics.