Appetite control and exercise: Does the timing of exercise play a role?

The prevention and management of chronic diseases, particularly overweight and obesity, relies on multidisciplinary strategies mainly combining dietary approaches with physical activity. Recently, the timing of exercise (time of the day as well as delay/position relative to a meal) has been suggested as an important parameter to consider when prescribing physical activity. Some studies have for instance shown the interest of the timing of exercise on the glycemia, sleep and body composition regulation. However, the impact of exercise-timing on appetite control and energy intake remains unclear. This is why, the present paper questions whether physical exercise, depending on its timing during the day and related to a meal, can affect energy intake, appetite sensations and food reward. Although evidences remain actually limited, exercising during the morning; and particularly close to lunch, might have a better impact on overall energy balance through reduced subsequent energy intake, without leading to compensatory intakes at the following meals. Importantly, dealing with the timing of exercise to optimize energy balance (and affect energy intake and appetite) does not only require to consider its time during the day (morning vs. afternoon or evening), but also and maybe mainly its order/position (pre vs. post) and delay regarding meals. While the actual literature remains limited in this area, the present paper tends to highlight the importance of considering the timing of exercise to optimize our impact on the overall energy balance, and to encourage the elaboration of further studies to better understand and determine the potential effect of this timing of exercise, in order to find the best combination between the different exercise characteristics, intensity, duration, modality, to empower these effects.

Physical activity vs. sedentary time: independent associations with adiposity in children

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the independent associations between objectively measured levels of movement intensity (i.e., time spent sedentary and at light, moderate and vigorous intensities) and indicators of adiposity in a cohort of Canadian children.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 550 Caucasian children aged 8-10 years with at least one obese biological parent. Physical activity and sedentary time (accelerometer over 7 d) and indicators of adiposity (% body fat measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and waist-to-height ratio) were objectively measured. We examined the associations between levels of movement intensity and adiposity in multi-level linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, sleep duration, energy intake, sexual maturation, parental socioeconomic status and parental body mass index.

RESULTS

Objectively measured sedentary time was not associated with adiposity indicators in this cohort (unadjusted and adjusted models). However, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was inversely associated with % body fat (adj. β = -0.047; P = 0.02) and waist-to-height ratio (adj. β = -0.071; P < 0.001), independent of sedentary time and other covariates. Additionally, we observed that children who did not accumulate ≥60 min d(-1) of MVPA were more likely to be overweight or obese compared to those who met the recommendation (odds ratio [OR] 2.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.45-3.38). In contrast, there was no difference in the likelihood of being categorized as overweight or obese between those who met the recommendation of ≤2 h d(-1) of screen time and those who did not meet this recommendation (OR 1.27, 95% CI 0.75-2.01).

CONCLUSION

The present study suggests that MVPA is independently associated with adiposity indices in this sample of children while sedentary time is not. Future studies should examine the best approach to increase MVPA in children and youth.

Folding, unfolding, and refolding of the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein

Folding and refolding of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) glycoprotein (G protein), New Jersey serotype, were studied both in infected cells and after urea denaturation and reduction of isolated protein in vitro. To assess the contribution of disulfide bonds to the conformation of this type I membrane glycoprotein, reduced and alkylated forms were compared with unreduced G proteins by their mobility on SDS-polyacrylamide gels and by their reactivity with conformation-dependent monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Pulse-chase experiments showed that G protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of infected cells occurred rapidly (estimated half-time of 1-2 min) and involved transient association with the ER chaperone calnexin. Inhibition of glycosylation by tunicamycin slowed the folding process and emergence from the ER but did not prevent the appearance of a conformationally mature transport-competent G protein. For in vitro refolding studies, native G protein isolated from virus particles was denatured and reduced with urea and beta-mercaptoethanol. When rapidly diluted into a denaturant-free buffer containing oxidized glutathione and the nonionic detergent octyl glucoside, the G protein regained considerable native structure, as determined by reactivity with five monoclonal antibodies specific for different conformation-dependent epitopes. Whereas the refolding process was slow and inefficient in vitro relative to folding in the cell, this observation nonetheless demonstrated that an integral fully glycosylated membrane protein can be refolded to form a structure similar to that of the original protein processed during in vivo synthesis. If, however, unfolded nonglycosylated G protein was the starting material, refolding in vitro failed. In summary, we have shown that VSV G protein folding can be analyzed both in vivo and in vitro and that folding in the cell involves at least one chaperone and can occur in vivo even if not glycosylated.

Effect of glycosylation on the conformational epitopes of the glycoprotein of vesicular stomatitis virus (New Jersey serotype)

The conformational epitopes reactive with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) appear to be clustered at the middle third of the glycoprotein (G) of the New Jersey serotype of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV-NJ) and are flanked by two N-linked carbohydrate chains (W. Keil and R.R. Wagner, Virology 170, 392-407, 1989). We report here studies on the effect of glycosylation on the reactivity of VSV-NJ G protein derived from released virions or immunoprecipitated from pulse-labeled cells was not significantly affected in its reactivity with MAbs directed to epitope IV mapped toward the amino-terminus, nor to the centrally located conformational epitopes VI, VIII, and IX. However, there was a 5- to 15-fold decrease in the reactivity with MAb of epitopes VI, VIII, and IX on unglycosylated G protein either isolated from a ribosome-enriched membrane fraction or immunoprecipitated from whole VSV-infected cells labeled for 15 hr in the presence of tunicamycin. In sharp contrast, epitope V and to a somewhat lesser extent epitope VII exhibited decreased reactivity with their respective MAbs when unglycosylated G protein was isolated from released viral particles or from pulse-labeled cells infected with VSV-NJ in the presence of tunicamycin. Enzymatic removal of preformed carbohydrate chains with N-glycanase had little or no effect on the MAb-reactivity of epitopes V and VII, indicating that the carbohydrate chains per se do not influence the antigenic specificity of VSV-NJ G protein. These data suggest that the formation of N-linked carbohydrate chains influences the structure of the VSV-NJ G protein in such a way that epitopes V and VII are shielded from reactivity with their specific MAbs from an early stage of G-protein processing and to a much lesser extent epitopes VI, VIII, and IX at late stages of intracellular processing. These results are compatible with, but do not prove, the hypothesis that N-linked glycosylation plays a key role in promoting the formation and the stability of the disulfide bonds that determine the epitope-specific conformational integrity of the VSV-NJ glycoprotein.