Can Exercise Attenuate the Effect of Acute Exposure to Urban Lighting on Behaviour and Brain? (360G-Wellcome-202263_Z_16_Z)

There is an increased prevalence of obesity and cardiometabolic disease in human shift-workers that might be partly mediated by disruption of circadian rhythms. Studies in both humans and animals have reported that disruption of circadian rhythms affects glucose homeostasis, and increases body weight. Circadian disruption (CD) is classically associated with shiftwork, but a more chronic form of disruption induced by the irregular lifestyle and artificial light of the urban environment could similarly disrupt rhythmicity and affect metabolic health. Inflammation and activation of microglia in the hypothalamus is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity, and upregulation of inflammatory signalling was also associated with CR induced by dim light at night. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of chronic dim light at night on body weight, food intake and markers of glial plasticity in the hypothalamus.