INSIGHTS INTO CHRONONUTRITION: THE INNERMOST INTERPLAY AMONGST NUTRITION, METABOLISM AND THE CIRCADIAN CLOCK, IN THE CONTEXT OF EPIGENETIC REPROGRAMMING
CRISTINA MANUELA DRĂGOI 1#, ELENA MOROŞAN 1#, ION-BOGDAN DUMITRESCU 1#, ALINA CRENGUŢA NICOLAE 1*, ANDREEA LETIŢIA ARSENE 1#, DOINA DRĂGĂNESCU 1, DUMITRU LUPULIASA 1, ANA CORINA IONIŢĂ 1, ANCA PANTEA STOIAN 1, CAMELIA NICOLAE 1#, MANFREDI RIZZO 2,3, MAGDALENA MITITELU 1
1“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
2Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties School of Medicine, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
3Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America
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Chrononutrition encompasses the concepts of metabolism, nutrition and circadian synchronization, determinant processes in
ensuring the dynamic energy equilibrium of the human organism. The interrelations between the external environmental
modulators and the molecular, biochemical mechanisms underlying all the integrative processes are subject to permanent
adjustments and become vulnerable to changes in nutritional characteristics, temperature variations or light intensity, to the
detection of acute or chronic stress factors. Accordingly, it is of overwhelming importance to identify the biochemical
mechanisms of transforming the dietary nutrients, the principles of energy metabolism, the particularities of nutritional states
in direct interdependence with the endocrine changes that occur consequently, the nutritional ketosis and the particular
characteristics of the use of ketone bodies in physiological situations, but also particular pathological conditions, and last but
not least, the ambivalent impact between chronobiological factors and metabolic balance. All these facts converge towards a
stable fingerprint of the epigenome on all molecular mechanisms that provide the homeostasis of the entire organism.
