Time-course responses of circulating microRNAs to three resistance training protocols in healthy young men

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 2203 - 13
• Main Authors: Cui, Shufang, Sun, Biao, Yin, Xin, Guo, Xia, Chao, Dingming, Zhang, Chunni, Zhang, Chen-Yu, Chen, Xi, Ma, Jizheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.05.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 13/21; 38/61; 38/90; 631/337/384/331; 631/443; Adult; Biomarkers; Circulating MicroRNA; Cortisol; Exercise - physiology; Healthy Volunteers; Hormones; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hypertrophy; Inflammation; Insulin; Insulin-like growth factor I; Interleukin 10; Male; MicroRNAs; miRNA; multidisciplinary; Muscle strength; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscle, Skeletal - pathology; Physical training; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reproducibility of Results; Resistance Training; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Strength training; Testosterone; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02294-y

Circulating microRNAs (c-miRNAs) in human plasma have been described as a potential marker of exercise. The present study investigated the effects of three acute resistance training (RT) protocols on the time-course changes of the c-miRNAs profiles in young males. The subjects (n = 45) were randomly divided into three groups: muscular strength endurance (SE), muscular hypertrophy (MH) and maximum strength (MS). Venous blood samples were obtained before exercise and immediately, 1 h and 24 h after each RT protocol to assess the following biological parameters: c-miRNAs, anabolic and catabolic hormones, inflammatory cytokines and muscle damage markers. The results revealed that the levels of two c-miRNAs (miR-208b and miR-532), six c-miRNAs (miR-133a, miR-133b, miR-206, miR-181a, miR-21 and miR-221) and two c-miRNAs (miR-133a and miR-133b) changed significantly in response to the SE, MH and MS protocols ( p  < 0.05), respectively. The nature and dynamic processes of the c-miRNAs response were likely influenced by the RT modality and intensity. Moreover, miR-532 was negatively correlated with insulin-like growth factor-1 and positively correlated with interleukin-10, whereas miR-133a was negatively correlated with cortisol and positively correlated with testosterone/cortisol. These findings suggest that these c-miRNAs may serve as markers for monitoring the RT responses.