Acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) is an inherited disorder of heme synthesis wherein a partial deficiency of porphobilinogen [PBG] deaminase [PBGD], with other factors may give rise to biochemical and clinical manifestations of disease. The biochemical hallmarks of active AIP are relative hepatic heme deficiency and uncontrolled up-regulation of hepatic 5-aminolevulinic acid [ALA] synthase-1 [ALAS1] with overproduction of ALA and PBG. The treatment of choice is intravenous heme, which restores the deficient regulatory heme pool of the liver and represses ALAS1. Recently, heme has been shown to influence circadian rhythms by controlling their negative feedback loops. We evaluated whether subjects with AIP exhibited an altered circadian profile. Over a 21 h period, we measured levels of serum cortisol, melatonin, ALA, PBG, and mRNA levels [in peripheral blood mononuclear cells] of selected clock-controlled genes and genes involved in heme synthesis in 10 Caucasian [European-American] women who were either post-menopausal or had been receiving female hormone therapy, 6 of whom have AIP and 4 do not and are considered controls. Four AIP subjects with biochemical activity exhibited higher levels of PBG and lower levels and dampened oscillation of serum cortisol, and a trend for lower levels of serum melatonin, than controls or AIP subjects without biochemical activity. Levels of clock-controlled gene mRNAs showed significant increases over baseline in all subjects at 5 am and 11 pm, whereas mRNA levels of ALAS1, ALAS2, and PBGD were increased only at 11 pm in subjects with active AIP. This pilot study provides evidence for disturbances of circadian markers in women with active AIP that may trigger or sustain some common clinical features of AIP.