One new study carried out by North American scientists confirms that physical activity causes numerous cellular and molecular changes in organs with health benefits.
The health benefits of physical exercise were already well known, but a group of scientists investigated how regular training changes the body at the molecular level. The new research, published in the journal Nature, was carried out on rats and 19 organs were studied. The results demonstrate that the body’s response to prolonged exercise is more complex and comprehensive than previously thought.
According to the authors, Prolonged physical activity in these animals caused profound changes in RNA, proteins, and metabolites in nearly every tissue, providing clues to many human conditions.
To reach these conclusions, scientists used a series of laboratory techniques to analyze molecular changes in rats subjected to weeks of intense exercise.
Scientists studied various tissues, such as the heart, brain and lungs, and found that each of the organs changed with exercise.helping the body to regulate immune system, responding to stress and controlling pathways related to inflammatory diseases of the liver, heart disease and tissues.
The investigation was led by MoTrPAC (physical activity transducer consortium), and involved scientists from the Broad Institute – Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University – as well as Stanford University and the United States National Institutes of Health.
“This is the first whole-organism map that analyzes the effects of training on multiple organs. The resources gained will be extremely valuable and have already yielded many potentially new biological insights for further exploration.”Broad’s Steve Carr emphasized.
According to Broad computational scientist Natalie Clark, “There are a variety of different experiments in the same tissues and this has given a global view of how all these different molecular layers contribute to the exercise response.”
In total, almost 10 thousand tests were carried out to make around 15 million measurements in blood and 18 solid tissuesexplained, in a statement, the Broad Institute.
Scientists discovered that the Exercise affected thousands of molecules, with the most extreme changes occurring in the adrenal gland, which produces hormones that regulate many important processes such as immunity, metabolism and blood pressure.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg”
The research made it possible to observe differences by sex in different organs, mainly in relation to the immunological response. Most of the immune signaling molecules unique to women showed changes in their levels between one and two weeks of training, while those from men showed differences between four and eight weeks.
To your surprise, Scientists found an increase in the acetylation of mitochondrial proteins, involved in energy production, and a phosphorization signal that regulates energy storage, both in the liver and in the body, which changes during exercise.
These modifications could help the liver become less fatty and less prone to disease through exercise, and could offer a target for future treatments of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
“Although the liver is not directly involved in exercise, it undergoes changes that could improve health. No one imagined that these changes in acetylation and phosphorization would occur after training”stated Jean-Beltran, who summarizes: “Exercise is a very complex process and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The authors, who have made the data available to the entire scientific community, hope that their discoveries can one day be used for adapt exercise to each person’s health status or to develop treatments that mimic the effects of physical activity.
With Lusa
