School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.
Monash Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2024 Mar;240(3):e14095. doi: 10.1111/apha.14095. Epub 2024 Jan 20.
Physical exercise triggers the secretion of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) into the circulation in humans, enabling signalling crosstalk between tissues. Exercise-derived EVs and their cargo have been proposed to mediate adaptations to exercise; however, our understanding of how exercise-derived EV protein cargo is modulated by factors such as aerobic fitness and age of an individual is currently unknown. Here, we examined the circulating sEV proteome following aerobic exercise in healthy males of different ages and aerobic fitness to understand exercise-induced EV response during the aging process.
Twenty-eight healthy men completed a bout of 20-min cycling exercise at 70% estimated VO . Small EVs were isolated from blood samples collected before and immediately after exercise, and then quantified using particle analysis and Western blotting. Small EV proteome was examined using quantitative proteomic analysis.
We identified a significant increase in 13 proteins in small plasma EVs following moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise. We observed distinct changes in sEV proteome after exercise in young, mature, unfit, and fit individuals, highlighting the impact of aerobic fitness and age on sEV protein secretion. Functional enrichment and pathway analysis identified that the majority of the significantly altered sEV proteins are associated with the innate immune system, including proteins known to be damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs).
Together, our findings suggest that exercise-evoked acute stress can positively challenge the innate immune system through the release of signalling molecules such as DAMPs in sEVs, proposing a novel EV-based mechanism for moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise in immune surveillance pathways.
运动可引发人体中小细胞外囊泡（sEVs）分泌到循环中，从而实现组织间的信号串扰。运动衍生的 EV 及其 cargo 被认为介导了对运动的适应；然而，我们目前尚不清楚个体的有氧适能和年龄等因素如何调节运动衍生的 EV 蛋白 cargo。在这里，我们研究了不同年龄和有氧适能的健康男性进行有氧运动后循环中的 sEV 蛋白质组，以了解衰老过程中运动诱导的 EV 反应。
28 名健康男性以 70%估计的 VO 进行 20 分钟的自行车运动。在运动前和运动后立即采集血液样本，分离出小 EVs，并用粒子分析和 Western blot 进行定量。使用定量蛋白质组学分析检查小 EV 蛋白质组。
我们发现，中等至剧烈强度运动后，小血浆 EV 中的 13 种蛋白质显著增加。我们观察到年轻、成熟、不适应和适应个体在运动后 sEV 蛋白质组发生了明显变化，突出了有氧适能和年龄对 sEV 蛋白质分泌的影响。功能富集和途径分析表明，大多数 sEV 蛋白发生改变与先天免疫系统有关，包括已知是损伤相关分子模式 (DAMP) 的蛋白质。
总之，我们的研究结果表明，运动诱发的急性应激可以通过 sEV 中信号分子（如 DAMP）的释放来积极挑战先天免疫系统，为中等至剧烈强度运动在免疫监视途径中的作用提供了一种新的基于 EV 的机制。
