Linking type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiac hypertrophy and depression in a diurnal animal model

It was recently suggested that the Metabolic Syndrome should be renamed to “Circadian Syndrome”. In this context, we explored the effects of living under standard laboratory conditions, where light is the only cycling variable (relevant to human modern life), in a diurnal mammal, on the relationships between affective-like pathology, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiac hypertrophy. After 20 weeks, some of the animals spontaneously developed T2DM, depressive and anxiety-like behavior and cardiac hypertrophy. There were significant correlations between levels of anxiety-like behavior and glucose tolerance, and between heart/total body weight ratio and glucose tolerance. Our data suggest a relationship between the development of T2DM, emotional and cardiac pathology as seen in diurnal humans. Furthermore, our data show a possible relationship between reduced daily cycling cues in the laboratory and what has been regularly termed “Metabolic Syndrome” and recently proposed by us to be renamed to “Circadian Syndrome”.