Dynamic Transcriptomic Responses to Acute Exercise Stimuli in Young Adults

Acute exercise elicits dynamic transcriptional changes that, when repeated, form the fundamental basis of health, resilience, and performance adaptations. While moderate-intensity endurance training combined with conventional resistance training (traditional, TRAD) is often prescribed and recommended by public health guidance, high-intensity training combining maximal-effort intervals with intensive, limited-rest resistance training is a time-efficient alternative that may be used tactically (HITT) to confer similar benefits. Mechanisms of action of these distinct stimuli are incompletely characterized and have not been directly compared. We assessed transcriptome-wide responses in skeletal muscle and circulating extracellular vehicles (EVs) to a single exercise bout in young adults randomized to TRAD (n=21, 12M/9F, 22±3y) or HITT (n=19, 11M/8F, 22±2y). Next-generation sequencing captured small, long, and circular RNA in muscle and EVs. Analysis identified differentially expressed transcripts (|log2FC|>1, FDR≤0.05) immediately (h0, EVs only), h3, and h24 post-exercise within and between exercise protocols. Additionally, all apparently responsive transcripts (FDR<0.2) underwent singular value decomposition to summarize data structures into latent variables (LVs) to deconvolve molecular expression circuits and inter-regulatory relationships. LVs were compared across time and exercise protocol. TRAD, a longer but more sustained stimulus, generally elicited a stronger transcriptional response than HITT, but considerable overlap and key differences existed. Findings reveal shared and unique molecular responses to the exercise stimuli and lay groundwork toward establishing relationships between protein-coding genes and lesser-understood transcripts that serve regulatory roles following exercise. Future work should advance the understanding of these circuits and whether they repeat in other populations or following other types of exercise/stress.