Evaluation of the relationship between nutritional status, levels of physical activity and physical strength in adolescents.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The study aimed at evaluating the relationship among anthropometric measurements, levels of physical activity and physical fitness in schoolchildren. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in public schools, with 173 adolescents from 10 to 17 years of age. Socioeconomic data were obtained by a structured questionnaire. Anthropometric measures were assessed and classified according to Body Mass Index (BMI)/age and Waist Circumference (WC). The long version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess the level of physical activity, while the physical fitness level was assessed using the Projeto Esporte Brasil (PROESP) test protocol. RESULTS: 72,3% of the adolescents were eutrophic and 24.3% were overweight and 22.6% were at high risk for cardiovascular disease, with no statistical difference between the sexes (p > 0.05). 53.8% were physically inactive, regardless of sex and nutritional status. 86.1% of the adolescents showed low physical fitness, more significantly for sit-and-reach andsquare tests of females. BMI was directly correlated with physical fitness in the assessment ofupper limb power and agility (medicine ball throw and square test) and indirectly with aerobic capacity and lower limb power (abdominal resistance, horizontal jump and general resistance). The opposite was observed in the correlation of endurance (abdominal and general) and medicine ball throw with WC. Also, there was a likely visceral obesity and consequent cardiovascular risk in females more than in males. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reinforce the connection between physical activity and the presence of overweight and obesity in adolescents and also the need to effectively intervene in this groupin order to ensure the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases in adulthood.

Serum and Urinary Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Are Not Associated With Serum Redox Parameters in Amateur Athletes After an Ultramarathon.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between oxidative stress and NGAL levels in blood and urine of amateur athletes after participating in a 100 km ultramarathon. Methodology: The sample was composed of seven athletes, submitted to anthropometric assessment, cardiopulmonary exercise test, collection of urine and blood, measurement of body weight. The rate of perceived exertion (RPE), competition duration, heart rate (HR), energy expenditure and oxygen consumption (V'O2") were also measured during the event. The energy consumption during the race was verified at its end. The analyses were based on the means (M) and respective standard deviations (SD), with statistical significance set at 5% (p < 0.05). Paired t-test was used for comparison between the periods before and after the competition, and Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear correlation between quantitative variables. Results: Body mass index (BMI) of the sample was 25.75 kg/m2 ± 3.20, body fat percentage 18.54% ± 4.35% and V'O2"max 48.87% ± 4.78. Glucose, cortisol, and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) (p < 0.01) as well as glutathione peroxidase (GPx) active were higher after the race when compared to basal values. Moreover, lactate, creatinine, microalbuminuria, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (p < 0.001) were also higher after the race. After the competition, there was a significant correlation only between serum NGAL and creatinine, which was classified as strong and positive (r: 0.77; p < 0.05). There was a significant reduction (p < 0.05) of body weight after the event (72.40 kg ± 9.78) compared to before it (73.98 kg ± 10.25). In addition, we found an increase of RPE (p < 0.001) after the race. The competition lasted 820.60 min (±117.00), with a 127.85 bpm (±12.02) HR, a 2209.72 kcal ± 951.97 energy consumption, 7837.16 kcal ± 195.71 energy expenditure, and 28.78 ml/kg/min-1 (±4.66) relative V'O2"max. Conclusion: The lack of correlation between oxidative stress biomarkers and serum and urine NGAL suggests that NGAL is more sensitive to inflammatory processes than to ROS levels.

Transcriptional profile in rat muscle: down-regulation networks in acute strenuous exercise.

BACKGROUND: Physical exercise is a health promotion factor regulating gene expression and causing changes in phenotype, varying according to exercise type and intensity. Acute strenuous exercise in sedentary individuals appears to induce different transcriptional networks in response to stress caused by exercise. The objective of this research was to investigate the transcriptional profile of strenuous experimental exercise. METHODOLOGY: RNA-Seq was performed with Rattus norvegicus soleus muscle, submitted to strenuous physical exercise on a treadmill with an initial velocity of 0.5 km/h and increments of 0.2 km/h at every 3 min until animal exhaustion. Twenty four hours post-physical exercise, RNA-seq protocols were performed with coverage of 30 million reads per sample, 100 pb read length, paired-end, with a list of counts totaling 12816 genes. RESULTS: Eighty differentially expressed genes (61 down-regulated and 19 up-regulated) were obtained. Reactome and KEGG database searches revealed the most significant pathways, for down-regulated gene set, were: PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, RAF-MAP kinase, P2Y receptors and Signaling by Erbb2. Results suggest PI3K-AKT pathway inactivation by Hbegf, Fgf1 and Fgr3 receptor regulation, leading to inhibition of cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. Cell signaling transcription networks were found in transcriptome. Results suggest some metabolic pathways which indicate the conditioning situation of strenuous exercise induced genes encoding apoptotic and autophagy factors, indicating cellular stress. CONCLUSION: Down-regulated networks showed cell transduction and signaling pathways, with possible inhibition of cellular proliferation and cell degeneration. These findings reveal transitory and dynamic process in cell signaling transcription networks in skeletal muscle after acute strenuous exercise.

A compendium of physical exercise-related human genes: an 'omic scale analysis.

Regular exercise is an exogenous factor of gene regulation with numerous health benefits. The study aimed to evaluate human genes linked to physical exercise in an 'omic scale, addressing biological questions to the generated database. Three literature databases were searched with the terms 'exercise', 'fitness', 'physical activity', 'genetics' and 'gene expression'. For additional references, papers were scrutinized and a text-mining tool was used. Papers linking genes to exercise in humans through microarray, RNA-Seq, RT-PCR and genotyping studies were included. Genes were extracted from the collected literature, together with information on exercise protocol, experimental design, gender, age, number of individuals, analytical method, fold change and statistical data. The 'omic scale dataset was characterized and evaluated with bioinformatics tools searching for gene expression patterns, functional meaning and gene clusters. As a result, a physical exercise-related human gene compendium was created, with data from 58 scientific papers and 5.147 genes functionally correlated with 17 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. While 50.9% of the gene set was up-regulated, 41.9% was down-regulated. 743 up- and 530 down-regulated clusters were found, some connected by regulatory networks. To summarize, up- and down-regulation was encountered, with a wide genomic distribution of the gene set and up- and down-regulated clusters possibly assembled by functional gene evolution. Physical exercise elicits a widespread response in gene expression.

Differential Expression of NADPH Oxidases Depends on Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type in Rats.

NADPH oxidases (NOX) are important sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skeletal muscle, being involved in excitation-contraction coupling. Thus, we aimed to investigate if NOX activity and expression in skeletal muscle are fiber type specific and the possible contribution of this difference to cellular oxidative stress. Oxygen consumption rate, NOX activity and mRNA levels, and the activity of catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), as well as the reactive protein thiol levels, were measured in the soleus (SOL), red gastrocnemius (RG), and white gastrocnemius (WG) muscles of rats. RG showed higher oxygen consumption flow than SOL and WG, while SOL had higher oxygen consumption than WG. SOL showed higher NOX activity, as well as NOX2 and NOX4 mRNA levels, antioxidant enzymatic activities, and reactive protein thiol contents when compared to WG and RG. NOX activity and NOX4 mRNA levels as well as antioxidant enzymatic activities were higher in RG than in WG. Physical exercise increased NOX activity in SOL and RG, specifically NOX2 mRNA levels in RG and NOX4 mRNA levels in SOL. In conclusion, we demonstrated that NOX activity and expression differ according to the skeletal muscle fiber type, as well as antioxidant defense.