Author(s): MOUFID TRAMBATY, T., DAUCOURT, C., PRIMAVESI, J., TAGLIAPIETRA, G., CONEDERA, L., JAKOB, K., POCHON, J., RINKER, J., GOTTARDO, R., LORRAIN, S., QUADRONI, M., BAGGISH, A.L., NEYROUD, D., Institution: UNIVERSITÉ DE LAUSANNE, Country: SWITZERLAND, Abstract-ID: 2267

INTRODUCTION:
The salutary effects of regular physical activity on cardiovascular and metabolic health are well established. While precise understanding of the cellular and molecular processes underlying those benefits remain incompletely understood, accumulating evidence suggests that acute bouts of exercise trigger a transient immune and inflammatory response that may act as a key mediator of long-term physiological adaptations. Modulation of exercise intensity is known to modulate the magnitude of those transient responses. Importantly, current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend either 150 min of moderate- or 75 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week, yet the acute molecular signatures elicited by these clinically relevant intensities have not been directly compared. Herein, we aimed to assess and directly compare the acute proteomic response to 30 minutes of moderate vs. vigorous treadmill exercise in a cross-over design.
METHODS:
Young healthy sedentary individuals underwent maximal effort-limited cardiopulmonary exercise test to determine peak oxygen uptake (VO2PEAK) and the first ventilatory threshold (VT1). Subsequently, each participant performed both a moderate (workloads corresponding with VT1−15%) and vigorous (workloads corresponding with VT1+15%) bout of treadmill exercise, each lasting 30 min. Both sessions were conducted after an overnight fast and were separated by ≥ 4 weeks. Heart rate (HR) was continuously recorded using a chest strap (Polar H10). Blood samples were collected pre-exercise and immediately post-exercise for targeted proteomic profiling of the immune and inflammatory response (Olink REVEAL panel). Proteins were defined as “exercise responsive” based on a fold change > ∣1,2∣ and an FDR < 0.05.
RESULTS:
Six women and six men (age = 23 ± 5 years, VO2PEAK = 41 ± 8 ml/kg/min) participated in this study. As expected, vigorous exercise resulted in a greater average HR than moderate exercise (82 ± 9% vs. 66 ± 8% of HR peak, p < 0.05). Among the 1034 proteins assayed, none showed statistically significant changes in abundance in response to 30 min of moderate exercise. In contrast, vigorous exercise triggered a broad systemic response. We identified a significant change in 394 proteins (38% of the assayed panel), almost exclusively characterized by up-regulation. This vigorous-intensity signature was heavily enriched with mediators of cytokine and chemokine signalling, reflecting a robust activation of the systemic immune system.
CONCLUSION:
These findings extend previous work by demonstrating that vigorous, but not moderate, acute exercise elicits a broad systemic immune and inflammatory response in young healthy adults. Further work is required to determine the extent to which this distinct immune and inflammatory response mediates long-term physiological adaptation in both the primary and secondary prevention setting.