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. 2019 Apr 18;20(8):1911. doi: 10.3390/ijms20081911

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© 2019 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Scheduled meals as an extra-SCN zeitgeber for the entrainment of circadian rhythms in aging and metabolic diseases. In later life, a reduced sensitivity of the master clock to light, imbalances of neurotransmitters, and desynchronization of SCN neurons lead to a decrease in the overall amplitude of its firing rhythm. In turn, a weaker SCN output signal reduces the strength of downstream oscillators in central and peripheral tissues. In metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D), circadian rhythms are also reduced or dysregulated. Providing other zeitgebers, such as scheduled meals, which act on the circadian system via extra-SCN pathways, may entrain the circadian system and restore circadian rhythms. Illustrations, used in this Figure, were adapted from Servier Medical Art (http://smart.servier.com/). Servier Medical Art by Servier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.