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Clocks and calendars within our immune systems could render us more susceptible to infection and injury at certain times of day or months of the year, a new study suggests. A better understanding of these rhythms could have implications for the prevention and treatment of diseases like Covid-19. It could also help explain why certain illnesses, like flu, tend to strike in winter, while the symptoms of other diseases, like multiple sclerosis, often worsen in summer.
Although recent studies have hinted that there may be seasonal or daily “circadian” rhythms in our immune function, this hadn’t been confirmed in large numbers of people until now.
“It has been clear for centuries that people are more susceptible to certain diseases in winter, but we still don’t really understand the role our bodies play in that,” said Dr Cathy Wyse, a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, who led the new research.
To investigate, Wyse and colleagues turned to blood collected from some 329,261 participants in the UK Biobank study – which has followed the health of about half a million Britons for more than a decade – to see if the time of day or season when these samples were collected had any bearing on the immune cells they contained.
www.theguardian.com
Although recent studies have hinted that there may be seasonal or daily “circadian” rhythms in our immune function, this hadn’t been confirmed in large numbers of people until now.
“It has been clear for centuries that people are more susceptible to certain diseases in winter, but we still don’t really understand the role our bodies play in that,” said Dr Cathy Wyse, a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, who led the new research.
To investigate, Wyse and colleagues turned to blood collected from some 329,261 participants in the UK Biobank study – which has followed the health of about half a million Britons for more than a decade – to see if the time of day or season when these samples were collected had any bearing on the immune cells they contained.
Seasonal rhythms within immune systems may explain infection rates – study
Study finds fluctuations in white blood cells according to time of day and season, suggesting stronger or weaker immune function
www.theguardian.com
