IMR Press / RCM / Volume 23 / Issue 5 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2305181
Open Access Original Research
The Effect of Chronic Endurance Exercise on Serum Levels of MOTS-c and Humanin in Professional Athletes
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1 Biomedical Research Center, Qatar University, 2713 Doha, Qatar
2 Qatar Metabolic Institute, Hamad Medical Corporation, 3050 Doha, Qatar
3 Translational Research Institute, Hamad Medical Corporation, 3050 Doha, Qatar
4 Laboratorio Antidoping, Federazione Medico Sportiva Italiana, 00197 Rome, Italy
5 QU Health, Qatar University, 2713 Doha, Qatar
*Correspondence: m.elrayess@qu.edu.qa (Mohamed A Elrayess)
Academic Editors: Peter Kokkinos and Jonathan Myers
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2022, 23(5), 181; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2305181
Submitted: 2 March 2022 | Revised: 31 March 2022 | Accepted: 13 April 2022 | Published: 18 May 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Humanin and the mitochondrial open reading frame of the 12S rRNA-c (MOTS-c) are mitochondrial encoded peptides involved in energy metabolism, cytoprotection, longevity, insulin sensitivity and their expression decrease with age. Levels of these molecules have been shown to respond to acute exercise, however little is known about their modulation under different chronic exercise conditions. In this study, we aim to compare levels of Humanin and MOTS-c in non-athletes vs professional (moderate and high endurance) athletes. Methods: Serum samples were collected from 30 non-athlete controls and 75 professional athletes (47 low/moderate endurance and 28 high endurance athletes). Levels of Humanin and MOTS-c were measured by the enzyme linked immunosorbent aaasy (ELISA) and linear models were generated to compare the effect of different levels of endurance exercise on these factors in different age groups. Spearman correlation was used to assess the correlation between these factors in athletes and non-athletes. Results: We showed that professional athletes had lower levels of MOTS-c and higher levels of Humanin than sedentary controls. Within the athletic groups, high endurance athletes had lower levels of Humanin than low/moderate endurance athletes of the same gender/age groups, whereas MOTS-c levels did not change between the subgroups. Humanin and MOTS-c levels were highly correlated in athletes, but not in sedentary controls. Conclusions: This pilot data suggests that serum levels of the mitochondrial proteins MOTS-c and Humanin change in response to chronic exercise with implications on energy metabolism and performance.

Keywords
professional athletes
endurance
age
mitochondrial proteins
humanin
MOTS-c
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