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Plasma metabolic profile in COPD patients: effects of exercise and endurance training

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Abstract

The study examines plasma metabolic profiles of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to prove whether the disease influences metabolism at rest and after endurance training. This is based on the hypothesis that metabolome levels should reflect impaired skeletal muscle bioenergetics in COPD. The study aims to test this hypothesis by evaluating plasma metabolic profiles in COPD patients before and after 8 weeks of endurance exercise training. We studied blood samples from 18 COPD patients and 12 healthy subjects. Pre- and post-training blood plasma samples at rest and after constant-work rate exercise (CWRE) at 70% of pre-training Watts peak were analyzed by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to assess metabolite profiles. The two groups presented training-induced physiological changes in the VO2 peak and in blood lactate levels (P < 0.01 each). Before training, the two groups also showed differences in metabolic profiles at rest (P < 0.05). Levels of valine (r = 0.51, P < 0.01), alanine (r = 0.45, P < 0.05) and isoleucine (r = 0.51, P < 0.01) were positively associated with body composition (Fat Free Mass Index). While training showed a significant impact on the metabolic profile in healthy subjects (P < 0.001), with changes in levels of amino acids, creatine, succinate, pyruvate, glucose and lactate (P < 0.05 each), no equivalent training-induced effects were seen in COPD patients in whom only lactate decreased (P < 0.05). This study shows that plasma metabolic profiling contributes to the phenotypic characterization of COPD patients.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the contribution of Elena Gimeno, Jordi Vilaro, Phillip Muñoz, Yolanda Torralba and all the technical staff of the Lung Function Laboratory for their collaboration in the physiological studies and during the training program. This study was supported by European Commission (FP6) BIOBRIDGE (LSHG-CT-2006-037939.); Fundació Marató TV3-042010 Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS-PI061510); CIBERES (CB-06/06), ISCIII-RTICC (RD06/0020/0046); Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2009SGR1308 and 2009SGR911), and Icrea Academia award 2010 granted to M. Cascante, and Spanish Government Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union FEDER funds (SAF2008-00164). Financial support was also given by the Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the 6th Framework Program of the EC (Contract# RII3-026145, EU-NMR) for obtaining NMR spectra at HWB-NMR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Servei de Pneumologia (Institut Clinic del Tòrax), Hospital Clínic, Institut d’Investigacions Biomédiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Diego A. Rodríguez, Federico P. Gómez & Josep Roca

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona and Institute of Biomedicine of Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Av Diagonal 645, Barcelona, Spain

    Gema Alcarraz-Vizán, Santiago Díaz-Moralli & Marta Cascante

  3. CR UK Institute for Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Vincent Drive. Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

    Michelle Reed & Ulrich Günther

  4. School of Biosciences and IBR, University of Birmingham, Vincent Drive. Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

    Francesco Falciani

Authors
  1. Diego A. Rodríguez
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  2. Gema Alcarraz-Vizán
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  3. Santiago Díaz-Moralli
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  4. Michelle Reed
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  5. Federico P. Gómez
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  6. Francesco Falciani
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  7. Ulrich Günther
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  8. Josep Roca
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  9. Marta Cascante
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Josep Roca or Marta Cascante.

Additional information

Diego A. Rodríguez and Gema Alcarraz-Vizán contributed equally to this work.

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Rodríguez, D.A., Alcarraz-Vizán, G., Díaz-Moralli, S. et al. Plasma metabolic profile in COPD patients: effects of exercise and endurance training. Metabolomics 8, 508–516 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-011-0336-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-011-0336-x

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