Human and mouse leukocytes: Different clockwork

Abstract

In this issue of Blood, Zhao et al use a humanized mouse model to investigate the mechanisms driving daily oscillations in circulating human and murine leukocytes.1 In the same mice, they find human and murine circulating leukocytes displaying inverted oscillations, reproducing the trafficking pattern previously observed in both species. A novel network regulating circadian leukocyte trafficking is proposed. It involves interspecies differences of stress-kinase regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), hypoxia-inducible factor 1a (HIF-1a) and clock gene–dependent regulation of the CXCL12 receptor CXCR4. This study underscores the crosstalk of the genetic clock with metabolism and ROS in the regulation of leukocyte migration and reveals new mechanistic players.