What Drives Systemic Effects on Metabolism upon Exercise?

Exercise drives systemic effects on metabolism at the molecular level. During exercise, muscle uses energy, liver supplies energy to muscle. Fat provides the muscle with the energy required. For example, ATP turnover and glucose/free fatty acid (FFA) uptake increase in muscle1). In fat, lipolysis occurs and FFA mobilization is upregulated1). Also, fat contributes to thermogenesis by exercise2). Changes occur not only in an individual organ, but also between organs such as muscle, liver, and fat. These organs can crosstalk through exercise-induced hormones. For example, irisin that is secreted by muscle can affect adipose tissue by increasing browning3). IL-6 which is also secreted by muscle improves liver metabolism4). Therefore, my goal of the study is to identify the systemic effects of exercise at the molecular level, as well as what drives them. Three major experiments will be conducted; transcriptome, proteomics, and histology. Transcriptome allows us to see changes in gene expression before and after exercise in each organ. By proteomics, it can be found what proteins are expressed in each organ. If we treat exercise-induced hormones in these organs, we can determine meanings through different histology.

In addition, metabolomics will be used for tracking pathways and seeing the big picture5). This experiment can observe the instantaneous change of metabolite by using isotope labeled nutrients such as glucose, amino acid, and fatty acid. Also, metabolomics can reveal metabolic pathways that are affected by certain conditions. By using metabolomics, flows and intensity of metabolism can be observed in exercise. Where the change occurs is an important point of metabolic change in exercise. Using this as a clue, I expect that it can be applied to cure metabolic disease.

1) John, A., Hawley, et al. Cell. 2014. (Review)

2) Evan, D., Rosen, et al. Cell. 2014. (Review)

3) Bruce, M., Spiegelman, et al. Nature. 2012.

4) Robin, M., Murphy, et al. Nature Metabolism. 2020. (Review)

5) Cholsoon, Jang, et al. Cell. 2018. (Review)