Exercise affects the epigenetic expression of muscle genes. Genes are like hardware. Unless there are mutations, they will not change much from birth to death. However, at all stages of life, there will be many drastic changes in gene expression, and the regulation mechanism of gene expression, like software, will promote or inhibit gene activity according to different conditions. Epigenetics is a gene regulation mechanism, which mainly depends on DNA methylation, acetylation, deacetylation and histone methylation to affect the tightness and exposure of DNA and gene sequence, and then determine whether the above genes can be successfully expressed. In 20 14, Lindholm et al. asked 23 young healthy men and women to do one-legged bicycle training for three months, four times a week, 45 minutes each time (while the untrained legs were used as the control group), and collected muscle samples of both legs before and after the start, and analyzed the methylation status of 480,000 loci and the expression of more than 20,000 genes in the genome. The results of this important experiment show that DNA methylation will change the activity of nearly 5000 genes, among which genes related to skeletal muscle adaptation, angiogenesis and carbohydrate metabolism are enhanced [Note 4]. In addition, this study also found that the DNA region where methylation changes mainly occur is not located in the traditional promoter, but in the distant enhancer. These results show that the epigenetic expression of muscle cells does change with muscle strength training, which in turn affects the overall physiological performance and muscle/exercise efficiency.
Exercise affects the alternative splicing of RNA. Another gene expression regulation mechanism is alternative splicing. This mechanism occurs in the process of transforming RNA (precursor mRNA) into mature mRNA after DNA transcription. Through this step, the same precursor RNA can be spliced in different ways to form various mRNA subtypes, thus producing similar but unique protein. In previous research results, it is found that exercise training can change the alternative splicing of some genes and affect their products; For example, PGC 1α gene [Note 5], VEGFA gene [Note 6] and IGF 1 gene [Note 7], which are related to the production of mitochondria (organelles that produce energy needed by cells), are reported to be affected by exercise. However, the above research only focused on a few genes. In order to analyze from the perspective of macro-genomics, Lindgolm and others further sequenced the RNA of leg muscle cells of 23 subjects who participated in the above research, and compared the results with factors such as muscle strength performance and muscle active enzymes.
The researchers found that exercise caused 3404 genes to produce different isomers, most of which were related to the production of ATP (energy unit in cells, which can be regarded as energy package); In addition, 34 new mRNA types were found. This shows that exercise training can really change the original expression of genes, which may be closely related to maintaining good health. However, the researchers also found that the exercise mode of "fishing for one day and drying the net for three days" was meaningless, because after nine months' rest, the gene expression of the subjects had mostly recovered to the state before training, and there was no significant difference between the trained leg muscles and the untrained leg muscles. At this time, in order to explore the phenomenon of "muscle memory", that is, whether the muscles trained before can return to their original state more quickly in the next training, the research group selected 12 people to do the same exercise again; Unfortunately, no definite evidence was found to support the hypothesis of muscle memory [Note 8].
Exercise is the driving force of health. According to the above research results, exercise is closely related to the gene expression of body cells. But how effective will it be? If you still have the old "Exercise 333" in your mind, that is, three times a week for 30 minutes each time, and your heart rate reaches more than 130 times per minute, please forget it first; At present, the way adopted internationally is to suggest that adults need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic activity (such as running) every week, plus at least two muscle strength trainings for large muscle groups. According to the 2008 American Physical Activity Guide proposed by the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2008 [Note 9]. As the saying goes, "The walls of a family are not ants, and running water does not rot." Research shows that the results of exercise cannot last long, so instead of waiting until you get sick and get sick, it is better to exercise regularly now, which is the right way to build a brilliant life, isn't it? Of course, the related research that tries to induce and replicate various gene expressions after exercise is also under way, which may replace the health benefits of exercise in the future, but it will never replace the rhythm of the body and the comfort of sweating!
References: 1. Warburton De et al. International Journal of Nutrition 2010; 7:39.2.r？ Nn T et al. plosge2013; 9:e 1003572。 3. Keller P et al J Applied Physiology (1985) 2011; 110: 46-59.4. Lindholmme et al., Epidemics 2014; 9:1557-69.5. physiological report of ydforsm et al. 2013; 1:e00 140。 6. American Journal of Physiology, 2004; 287:R397-402。 7.Hameed M et al., Journal of Physiology, 2003; 547:247-54.8. Public Science Library of China Academy of Sciences; 12:e 1006294。 9. Advisory Committee on Sports Activities Guidelines. Report of the Advisory Committee on Sports Activity Guidelines, 2008. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.
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Subject: ribonucleic acid, gene, epigenetics, exercise