Effect of Short-Term Endurance Exercise on COX IV and PGC-1a mRNA Expression Levels in Rat Skeletal Muscle

Abstract

Endurance exercise induces specific skeletal muscle adaptation by increasing mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation eficiency and mitochondrial biogenesis. Many previous studies suggesting both PGC-1a and COX IV as a potential biomarker of skeletal muscle adaptation induced by exercise. But most of them only studied the effect of long-term endurance exercise, whereas the effect of short-term exercise remains unclear. To investigate short-term physiological adaptation induced by endurance exercise on expression of COX IV and PGC-1a mRNA in rat skeletal muscle. Twenty healthy male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) aged 10-11 weeks old were used in this experiment. Rats were randomly assigned into 4 groups based on the time period of exercise: 1) control (C; n=5), 2) three days of exercise (E3; n=5), 3) six days of exercise (E6; n=5), 4) fifteen days of exercise (E15; n=5). The exercise groups were run at 20m/s for 30 minutes on the rat treadmill and the stationary control group was only placed inside treadmill with the machines turned off. On the last day of exercise, the rats were sacrificed then RNA from skeletal muscle was extracted. COX IV and PGC-1a mRNA expressions were measured by Reverse Transcriptase PCR. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences of PGC-1a mRNA expression levels in both soleus (F(3,16)=3.740, ps=0.033) and gastrocnemius (F(3,16)=3.969, pg=0.027) muscles. The COX IV mRNA expression levels in soleus (F(3,16)=3.801, ps=0.031) and gastrocnemius (F(3,16)=5.429, ps=0.009) muscles were also significantly increased. There were significant increases of PGC-1a and COX IV expressions in fifteen days of exercise group compared to control group in both muscles. Short-term endurance exercise induced mitochondrial biogenesis marker and mitochondrial activity marker by increasing the PGC-1a and COX IV mRNA expression levels in rat skeletal muscle significantly following the time periods of exercise.

Aerobic Exercise versus Electronic Cigarette in Vascular Aging Process: First Histological Insight

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Skeletal muscle effects of two different 10‐week exercise regimens, voluntary wheel running, and forced treadmill running, in mice: A pilot study

“…Correspondingly, depending on the type of exercise, training also induces characteristic metabolic adaptations in skeletal muscle cells, reflected by altered expression patterns of genes encoding mitochondrial and metabolism‐associated factors, such as Pgc‐1α (Peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma coactivator 1‐alpha), a regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, Ucp3 (uncoupling protein 3), a protein that uncouples proton flux and ATP synthesis in mitochondria, or Cox4 (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 4), a component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Specifically, whereas the Ppargc1a gene, encoding Pgc‐1 α, as well as Cox4, have been shown to be upregulated in response to endurance exercise in a variety of contexts (Burgomaster et al., 2007; Handschin and Spiegelman, 2008; Lira et al., 2010; Short et al., 2003; Southern et al., 2017; Sylviana et al., 2019), Ucp3 expression appears to be upregulated by acute exercise, but downregulated by endurance exercise training. However, this issue has been controversially discussed (Hesselink et al., 2003; Schrauwen and Hesselink, 2003; and references therein).…”