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Long-term detraining reverses the improvement of lifelong exercise on skeletal muscle ferroptosis and inflammation in aging rats: fiber-type dependence of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway

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Abstract

We investigated the effects of lifelong aerobic exercise and 8 months of detraining after 10 months of aerobic training on circulation, skeletal muscle oxidative stress, and inflammation in aging rats. Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly assigned to the control (CON), detraining (DET), and lifelong aerobic training (LAT) groups. The DET and LAT groups began aerobic treadmill exercise at the age of 8 months and stopped training at the 18th and 26th month, respectively; all rats were sacrificed when aged 26 months. Compared with CON, LAT remarkably decreased serum and aged skeletal muscle 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels. Superoxide dismutase 2(SOD2) levels were higher in the LAT group than in the CON group in skeletal muscle. However, DET remarkably decreased SOD2 protein expression and content in the skeletal muscle and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) level compared with LAT. Compared with LAT, DET remarkably downregulated adiponectin and upregulated tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) expression, while phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (AKT), and 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (P70S6K) protein expression decreased, and that of FoxO1 and muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbX) proteins increased in the quadriceps femoris. Adiponectin and TNF-α expression in the soleus muscle did not change between groups, whereas that of AKT, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and P70S6K was lower in the soleus in the DET group than in that in the LAT group. Compared with that in the LAT group, sestrin1 (SES1) and nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2) protein expression in the DET group was lower, whereas Keap1 mRNA expression was remarkably upregulated in the quadriceps femoris. Interestingly, the protein and mRNA levels of SES1, Nrf2, and Keap1 in soleus muscle did not differ between groups. LAT remarkably upregulated ferritin heavy polypeptide 1(FTH), glutathione peroxidase 4(GPX4), and solute carrier family 7member 11 (SLC7A11) protein expression in the quadriceps femoris and soleus muscles, compared with CON. However, compared with LAT, DET downregulated FTH, GPX4, and SLC7A11 protein expression in the quadriceps femoris and soleus muscles. Long-term detraining during the aging phase reverses the improvement effect of lifelong exercise on oxidative stress, inflammation, ferroptosis, and muscle atrophy in aging skeletal muscle. The quadriceps femoris is more evident than the soleus, which may be related to the different changes in the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway in different skeletal muscles.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank those who supported this study. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 31500961 and 31971099] and Interdisciplinary Studies at Nanjing Normal University.

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Z-ZW performed the experiments; H-CX, H-XZ, and C-KZ analyzed the data; B-ML and J-HH interpreted the results of the experiments; Y-QL and P-SN prepared the figures; Z-ZW drafted, edited, and revised the manuscript; F-HL and X-MY conceived and designed the research. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fang-Hui Li.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this study.

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All experiments were approved by the animal experiment ethical checklist of Nanjing Normal University (IACUU-1903006).

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Wang, ZZ., Xu, HC., Zhou, HX. et al. Long-term detraining reverses the improvement of lifelong exercise on skeletal muscle ferroptosis and inflammation in aging rats: fiber-type dependence of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway. Biogerontology 24, 753–769 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-023-10042-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-023-10042-1

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