Nelson AB, Chow LS, Stagg DB, Gillingham JR, Evans MD, Pan M, Hughey CC, Myers CL, Han X, Crawford PA, Puchalska P. Acute aerobic exercise reveals FAHFAs distinguish the metabolomes of overweight and normal weight runners.
JCI Insight 2022;
7:158037. [PMID:
35192550 PMCID:
PMC9057596 DOI:
10.1172/jci.insight.158037]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 02/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Responses of the metabolome to acute aerobic exercise may predict maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) and longer-term outcomes, including the development of diabetes and its complications.
Methods
Serum samples were collected from overweight/obese trained (OWT) and normal-weight trained (NWT) runners prior to and immediately after a supervised 90-minute treadmill run at 60% VO2max (NWT = 14, OWT = 11) in a cross-sectional study. We applied a liquid chromatography high-resolution–mass spectrometry–based untargeted metabolomics platform to evaluate the effect of acute aerobic exercise on the serum metabolome.
Results
NWT and OWT metabolic profiles shared increased circulating acylcarnitines and free fatty acids (FFAs) with exercise, while intermediates of adenine metabolism, inosine, and hypoxanthine were strongly correlated with body fat percentage and VO2max. Untargeted metabolomics-guided follow-up quantitative lipidomic analysis revealed that baseline levels of fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) were generally diminished in the OWT group. FAHFAs negatively correlated with visceral fat mass and HOMA-IR. Strikingly, a 4-fold decrease in FAHFAs was provoked by acute aerobic running in NWT participants, an effect that negatively correlated with circulating IL-6; these effects were not observed in the OWT group. Machine learning models based on a preexercise metabolite profile that included FAHFAs, FFAs, and adenine intermediates predicted VO2max.
Conclusion
These findings in overweight human participants and healthy controls indicate that exercise-provoked changes in FAHFAs distinguish normal-weight from overweight participants and could predict VO2max. These results support the notion that FAHFAs could modulate the inflammatory response, fuel utilization, and insulin resistance.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02150889.
Funding
NIH DK091538, AG069781, DK098203, TR000114, UL1TR002494.
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