Skeletal Muscle Transcriptomic Comparison between Long-Term Trained and Untrained Men and Women

• Published in: Cell reports (Cambridge) Vol. 31; no. 12; p. 107808
• Main Authors: Chapman, Mark A., Arif, Muhammad, Emanuelsson, Eric B., Reitzner, Stefan M., Lindholm, Maléne E., Mardinoglu, Adil, Sundberg, Carl Johan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 23.06.2020
• Subjects: Adult; Aerobiosis; Athletes; Biopsy; endurance training; exercise physiology; Female; gene expression; Gene Ontology; Genome, Human; genome-scale metabolic model; human subjects; Humans; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Physical Endurance; Resistance Training; Rest; RNA sequencing; Sedentary Behavior; Sequence Analysis, RNA; Sex Characteristics; skeletal muscle; skeletal muscle metabolism; skeletal muscle transcriptomics; Transcriptome - genetics; RNA sequencing; resistance training; skeletal muscle transcriptomics; exercise physiology; skeletal muscle metabolism; endurance training; human subjects; skeletal muscle; gene expression; genome-scale metabolic model
• ISSN: 2211-1247; 2211-1247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107808

To better understand the health benefits of lifelong exercise in humans, we conduct global skeletal muscle transcriptomic analyses of long-term endurance- (9 men, 9 women) and strength-trained (7 men) humans compared with age-matched untrained controls (7 men, 8 women). Transcriptomic analysis, Gene Ontology, and genome-scale metabolic modeling demonstrate changes in pathways related to the prevention of metabolic diseases, particularly with endurance training. Our data also show prominent sex differences between controls and that these differences are reduced with endurance training. Additionally, we compare our data with studies examining muscle gene expression before and after a months-long training period in individuals with metabolic diseases. This analysis reveals that training shifts gene expression in individuals with impaired metabolism to become more similar to our endurance-trained group. Overall, our data provide an extensive examination of the accumulated transcriptional changes that occur with decades-long training and identify important “exercise-responsive” genes that could attenuate metabolic disease. [Display omitted] •Endurance training shifts the transcriptome significantly compared with controls•Sex differences in the muscle transcriptome are diminished with endurance training•Strength training appears to not have a large effect on the resting transcriptome•A comparative analysis reveals genes that could attenuate metabolic diseases Exercise training performed over a lifetime is known to result in numerous health benefits and can prevent diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. To understand how long-term exercise can lead to such benefits, Chapman et al. compared gene expression levels in long-term-trained men and women.