Study showed that physical activity impacted cells in all rodent organs. Now researchers want to know how it affects humans
You probably already know that physical activity is good for you. But a new study has revealed previously unheard of information: exercise affects the cells of every organ in the body — in a positive way! The discovery was published last Wednesday (1), in Nature.
Photo: Li Sun/Pexels / Canaltech
The new information is in the hands of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC), which brings together scientists from MIT, Harvard, Stanford and other institutions.
To identify the molecular changes promoted by exercise, they studied various rodent tissues, such as the heart, brain and lungs.
In total, almost 10 thousand tests were carried out (with 15 million measurements in blood and 18 tissues).
Physical activity in cells
All to discover that exercise impacts thousands of molecules, with more extreme changes in the adrenal gland, which produces hormones that regulate many important processes, such as immunity, metabolism and blood pressure.
So each organ changes with exercise and helps the body regulate the immune system, respond to stress, and control pathways linked to inflammatory liver disease, heart disease, and tissue damage.
This knowledge about the impact on cells could be used in the future to tailor exercise to an individual’s health status or to develop treatments that mimic the effects of physical activity for people who are unable to exercise.
Physical activity impacts every cell in the body. Researchers want to see this impact on humans (Image: Freepik)
Photo: Canaltech
Therefore, the group made all the animal data available online, so other scientists can use it to find information about the proteins that change in the lungs after two months of exercise on a treadmill, for example.
Differences between males and females
The analysis revealed differences in the immune response over time for male and female mice. In the case of females, changes appeared between one and two weeks of training, while those of men took between four and eight weeks.
Now, the consortium’s proposal is to understand how physical activity changes human cells. Therefore, researchers are currently recruiting around 1,500 people for the next study.
Source: Nature
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