A research team at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions investigated the function of the protein Rev-erbα/β, a key component of the circadian clock, and found that its absence could lead to “heart disease development in animal models and human patients.”
The team reports in the journal Circulation that Rev-erbα/β in cardiomyocytes mediates a normal metabolic rhythm that enables the cells to prefer lipids as a source of energy during resting time. Removing Rev-erbα/β disrupts this rhythm, reduces the cardiomyocytes' ability to use lipids in the resting time and leads to progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure.
