Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Human hormone seasonality

Avichai Tendler, Alon Bar, Netta Mendelsohn-Cohen, Omer Karin, Yael Korem, Lior Maimon, Tomer Milo, Moriya Raz, Avi Mayo, View ORCID ProfileAmos Tanay, Uri Alon
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947366
Avichai Tendler
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alon Bar
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Netta Mendelsohn-Cohen
2Department of Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Omer Karin
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Yael Korem
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Lior Maimon
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tomer Milo
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Moriya Raz
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Avi Mayo
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Amos Tanay
2Department of Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Amos Tanay
Uri Alon
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: uri.alon@weizmann.ac.il
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Hormones control the major biological functions of stress response, growth, metabolism and reproduction. In animals these hormones show pronounced seasonality, with different set-points for different seasons. In humans, the seasonality of these hormones remains unclear, due to a lack of datasets large enough to discern common patterns and cover all hormones. Here, we analyze an Israeli health record on 46 million person-years, including millions of hormone blood tests. We find clear seasonal patterns: the effector hormones peak in winter-spring, whereas most of their upstream regulating pituitary hormones peak only months later, in summer. This delay of months is unexpected because known delays in the hormone circuits last hours. We explain the precise delays and amplitudes by proposing and testing a mechanism for the circannual clock: the gland masses grow with a timescale of months due to trophic effects of the hormones, generating a feedback circuit with a natural frequency of about a year that can entrain to the seasons. Thus, humans may show coordinated seasonal set-points with a winter-spring peak in the growth, stress, metabolism and reproduction axes.

  • Systems endocrinology
  • systems medicine
  • hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
  • gonadal axis
  • thyroid axis

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • We added new figures on the time-of-day of all tests in each season, new modelling on circannual clock mechanisms, comparisons to animal studies, main-text figures on blood chemistry seasonality, information on methods, and improved the discussion.

  • https://github.com/alonbar110/human-hormone-seasonality

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted July 03, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Human hormone seasonality
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Human hormone seasonality
Avichai Tendler, Alon Bar, Netta Mendelsohn-Cohen, Omer Karin, Yael Korem, Lior Maimon, Tomer Milo, Moriya Raz, Avi Mayo, Amos Tanay, Uri Alon
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.947366; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947366
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Human hormone seasonality
Avichai Tendler, Alon Bar, Netta Mendelsohn-Cohen, Omer Karin, Yael Korem, Lior Maimon, Tomer Milo, Moriya Raz, Avi Mayo, Amos Tanay, Uri Alon
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.947366; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947366

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Systems Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3514)
  • Biochemistry (7371)
  • Bioengineering (5347)
  • Bioinformatics (20328)
  • Biophysics (10048)
  • Cancer Biology (7781)
  • Cell Biology (11353)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6454)
  • Ecology (9984)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13359)
  • Genetics (9375)
  • Genomics (12614)
  • Immunology (7729)
  • Microbiology (19118)
  • Molecular Biology (7477)
  • Neuroscience (41163)
  • Paleontology (301)
  • Pathology (1235)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2142)
  • Physiology (3182)
  • Plant Biology (6882)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1276)
  • Synthetic Biology (1900)
  • Systems Biology (5328)
  • Zoology (1091)