Exercise has the ability to mimic the molecular profile of Yamanaka factor-exposed muscle, resulting in similar molecular expression to young cells.
Evidence suggests that exercise creates a molecular profile in muscle that is consistent with the expression of the youthfulness-promoting Yamanaka factor.
A recent study published in Journal of Physiology Furthermore, it supports the idea that exercise helps maintain youthful qualities in aging organisms. It is based on.
The lead author of the paper is Kevin Murucci, an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation at the University of Arkansas. The lead author is Ronald G. Jones III, Ph.D. Student at Murach’s Molecular Muscle Mass Regulation Laboratory.
For this paper, the researchers compared aged mice with access to a weighted exercise wheel to mice that underwent epigenetic reprogramming via expression of the Yamanaka factor.
Kevin Muraha.Credit: University of Arkansas
Yamanaka factors are four protein transcription factors (identified as follows). Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, often abbreviated as OK SM) can convert highly specific cells (such as skin cells) back into stem cells. Stem cells are younger and more adaptable. At appropriate doses, systemic induction of Yamanaka factor in rodents can ameliorate the characteristics of aging by mimicking the adaptations common to more youthful animals. cell.
Of the four factors, my C Induced by skeletal muscle exercise. my C This may be a useful point to compare cells reprogrammed by Yamanaka factor overexpression with those reprogrammed by exercise. ‘Reprogramming’ in the latter case is how environmental stimuli can alter gene accessibility and expression.
The researchers compared the skeletal muscles of mice allowed to exercise later in life to those of mice that overexpressed OKSM in the muscles, and genetically modified mice that were restricted to overexpressing Myc only in the muscles. bottom.
Ultimately, the team determined that exercise promotes a molecular profile consistent with epigenetic partial programming. That is, exercise can mimic aspects of the molecular profile of muscles exposed to Yamanaka factors (thus exhibiting more youthful cell molecular properties). This beneficial effect of exercise may be due in part to the specific actions of Myc in muscle.
It’s easy to hypothesize that one day we might be able to manipulate Myc in muscles to achieve the benefits of exercise and save real hard work, but Murach said that’s a false conclusion. I warn you when it becomes
First, Myc cannot replicate all the downstream effects of exercise on the whole body. It is also responsible for tumors and cancer, so there are inherent risks in manipulating its expression. As a strategy, Murach believes that manipulating Myc is the best way to go. Perhaps it could also be a means of supercharging the exercise response of weightless astronauts or bedridden people with limited exercise capacity. Myc has many effects, both good and bad, so defining what is beneficial could lead to effective and safe treatments in humans in the future.
Murach sees their study as further validation of exercise as a polypill. “Exercise is the most powerful medicine we have,” he says, and along with medicine and a healthy diet, it should be seen as a treatment that enhances health and potentially extends life.
See: “Molecular features that define age-related exercise adaptation and in vivo Ronald G. Jones III, Andrea Dimet-Wiley, Amin Haghani, Francielly Morena da Silva, Camille R. Brightwell, Seongkyun Lim, Sabin Khadgi, Yuan Wen, Cory M. Dungan, Robert T. Brooke, Nicholas P. Greene, Charlotte A. Peterson, John J. McCarthy, Steve Horvath, Stanley J. Watowich, Christopher S. Fry, Kevin A. Murach, 19 December 2022, journal of physiology.
DOI: 10.1113/JP283836
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
