| Summary: | Circadian misalignment plays an important role in disease processes and can affect disease severity, treatment outcomes, and even survivorship. In this study, we aim to investigate whether expression and daily oscillation patterns of core circadian clock genes were disturbed in patients with obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea (OSA) syndrome. We performed real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions to examine the expression of the nine core circadian clock genes in leukocytes of peripheral blood collected at 12 AM, 6 AM, 12 PM, and 6 PM from 133 patients with OSA and 11 normal controls. Daily expression patterns of the nine circadian clock genes were observed in normal controls, but three of these genes (<i>BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY2</i>) were disrupted in patients with OSA. The expressions of eight circadian clock genes (except <i>PER1</i>) at midnight were significantly downregulated in patients with severe OSA. Binary logistic regression analysis selected <i>CRY1</i> and <i>PER3</i> as independent factors for severe OSA and showed that the combined expressions of <i>CRY1</i> and <i>PER3</i> enhanced the capability of predicting severe OSA (Odds ratio, 5.800; 95% CI, 1.978 to 17.004; <i>p</i> = 0.001). Our results show that combined expressions of <i>CRY1</i> and <i>PER3</i> at midnight could be a potential predictor for severe OSA.
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