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Intramuscular mitochondrial and lipid metabolic changes of rats after regular high-intensity interval training (HIIT) of different training periods

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Abstract

Background

High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a time-efficient form of exercise and has gained popularity in recent years. However, at molecular level, the understanding about the effects of HIIT is not comprehensive, and even less is elucidated about HIIT of different training duration cycles, although different durations always lead to different post-training consequences.

Method

In this study, by training SD rats using HIIT protocols lasting for different training duration cycles, we investigated the adaptive response of intramuscular triglyceride abundance as well as mitochondrial and lipid metabolic changes after HIIT training (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 weeks). We selected 72 h after the last session of training as the time point of sacrifice.

Results

The suppressed activation of the cAMP-PKA pathway indicates that skeletal muscle was in the recovery phase at this time point. Intramuscular triglyceride abundance was significantly elevated after 2, 4, and 10 weeks of HIIT. However, the lipid metabolism-related proteins inconsistently changed in a chaotic trend (see Table 1). The expression levels of PGC1-α and COX IV decreased after 2 and 4 weeks of training and raised after 6 and 8 weeks of training. The expression level of citrate synthase (CS) decreased after 2, 4, 8, and 10 weeks of training, and showed an upward trend after 6 weeks of training. While the activity of CS decreased after 2 and 8 weeks of training and showed an upward trend after 6 weeks of HIIT.

Conclusion

Given the abovementioned changing trends, we propose two speculations: (A) the damaged mitochondria oxidation capacity might be one of the causes of IMTG accumulation observed after 2 and 4 weeks of HIIT. This phase might be similar to the condition of type 2 diabetes. (B) after 6-week HIIT, mitochondria function and biogenesis might be improved and the IMTG contents declined to baseline. This might be explained as: mitochondrial enhancement increased the capacity of lipid oxidation and then offset the increase in IMTG achieved during the first 4 weeks. For HIIT Rat Modelling, if the aim is to observe HIIT-induced positive effects, caution should be exercised when considering 2 and 4 weeks of training under our HIIT frame. Also, implementing six-week training is at least effective for mitochondrial enhancement when using similar HIIT frame of this study.

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Data availability

The supplement WB data used to support the findings of this study has been uploaded and is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the peer reviewers for their opinions and suggestions.

Funding

This work was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31801002). The authors are appreciative for Dr. Jingquan Sun’s help in obtaining the education grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Education, Chengdu University, 610106, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

    Ruonan Shangguan

  2. Institute of Sports Science, Sichuan University, Section 1, Southern Frist Ring Rd, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiqiang Hu, Yuzhen Luo, Min Chen, Xiangdeng Lai, Jingquan Sun & Siyu Chen

  3. Department of Physical Education, Sichuan University, 610041, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

    Jingquan Sun

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  1. Ruonan Shangguan
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Correspondence to Siyu Chen.

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The paper is original and has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. All procedures in the present study were approved by the Sichuan University animal ethics committee and carried out according to the criteria outlined in the “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals”.

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Shangguan, R., Hu, Z., Luo, Y. et al. Intramuscular mitochondrial and lipid metabolic changes of rats after regular high-intensity interval training (HIIT) of different training periods. Mol Biol Rep 50, 2591–2601 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08205-3

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