Below is the significance statement of the paper published on September 19, 2022, in eNeuro and authored by Terry Dean, Aissia Victoria Koffi, Evan Goldstein, Javid Ghaemmaghami, and Vittorio Gallo.
Circadian rhythm disturbances are commonly seen in neurologic disorders across the life span. The ramifications of these disturbances for the cellular healing capabilities of the brain are unknown. We show here that the largest population of regenerative cells in the adult central nervous system, known as NG2-glia, are indeed dependent on the integrity of their endogenous circadian rhythms. They not only rhythmically express molecular clock components, but the critical clock gene Bmal1 plays an important role in regulating their ability to proliferate, both at rest and after injury. These findings underscore the importance of circadian dysregulation in affecting brain recovery at the cellular level in neurologic disease.