Acute effects of concurrent exercise on biomarkers of angiogenesis and cardioprotection in sedentary adults

It is recommended that adults perform a combination of resistance and aerobic exercise, or concurrent exercise, to optimize health and fitness. However, the precise pattern of concurrent exercise to maximize health and fitness benefits remains elusive. The purpose of this study was to compare biomarkers of angiogenesis and cardioprotection in response to integrated and serial concurrent exercise (CE) sessions in young, sedentary adults. Seven males (mean ± SD age: 27.1 ± 4.4 yrs; BMI: 24.9 ± 3.7 kg/m2; VO2max: 31.1 ± 3.3 ml/kg/min) and four females (mean ± SD age: 22.0 ± 1.2 yrs; BMI: 24.0 ± 2.2 kg/m2; VO2max: 27.5 ± 3.6 ml/kg/min) who were healthy and not performing regular structured physical activity performed acute sessions of serial CE and integrated CE. During serial CE, participants performed resistance exercise and aerobic exercise within the same session, without mixing the two. During integrated CE, participants performed a brief period of aerobic-type exercise before each set of resistance exercise. The exercise sessions were matched for time and volume, and differed only in the order of exercises performed. The exercise sessions were randomly assigned and separated by at least 3 weeks. Concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and expression of circulating microRNAs (c-miR) -126 and -222 were assessed from blood collected before exercise (PRE), immediately post-exercise (IP), 1 hr post-exercise, and 3 hr post-exercise. Males and females were analyzed separately. There were no significant changes in VEGF in males or females. Circulating miR-126 significantly increased from PRE to IP for males following both serial CE (p = .036) and integrated CE (p = .018). Circulating miR-222 significantly increased from Pre to IP in males following integrated CE (p = .028) but not serial CE. There were no significant changes in c-miR-126 or -222 in the females; however, two of the four females demonstrated an increased expression of c-miR-126 and -222 following both exercise patterns, with an apparent greater increase following integrated CE. In conclusion, both patterns of CE resulted in significantly increased levels of miR-126 in males, and only integrated CE resulted in significantly increased levels of miR-222 in males. Both exercise patterns may result in enhanced expression of miR-126 in young, sedentary males, and an integrated CE pattern may result in enhanced expression of miR-222 in young, sedentary males.