The body suppresses inflammation in the night, says new study

A new study by researchers at the University of Manchester has shown how the body is able to suppress inflammation at night. This new discovery helps to explain how the body suppresses inflammation while we are asleep and how many people with arthritis wake up feeling stiff in the morning.

This new discovery, which was published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, could lead to the development of innovative new therapies in the future.

For the study, scientists examined particular cells from the joint tissue of healthy mice and humans which play a key role in causing inflammatory arthritis. They also found that a protein called cryptochrome, created by the body’s biological clock, worked to actively repress inflammatory pathways within affected limbs during the night.

The cells maintained a 24-hour rhythm, with an increased inflammatory response seen when this rhythm was disrupted by disabling the cryptochrome gene. This suggests that cryptochrome protein has significant anti-inflammatory effects.

As inflammation is the process that causes the pain and physical degeneration associated with arthritis, the team was keen to determine whether drugs designed to active the cryptochrome protein could deliver protection against inflammation.

The researchers were able to show this to be the case, indicating that this protein could be a useful new target in the future treatment of arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

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