Effects Of Different Doses Of Supervised Physical Exercise On The Lipidomic Profile Among Adolescents With Overweight/obesity: The Hepafit Study

PURPOSE: Obesity-related metabolic risk factors in adolescents who are overweight/obese may be associated with abnormal lipidomic profiles; therefore, we investigated the changes in the lipidomic profile in adolescents with excess weight after different doses of supervised physical exercise. METHODS: Secondary analyses of a randomized controlled exercise-based intervention trial (September 2017-December 2018). Adolescents (n = 100), 11-17 years with excess adiposity by body fat >30%, were randomly assigned to one of the following 4 groups for 6 months: (1) standard physical education lessons, control (CTRL); (2) high-intensity physical education (HIPE); (3) low-to-moderate intensity physical education (LIPE) and (4) combined HIPE and LIPE (PLUS). Participants were analysed using a semitargeted approach by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ToF-MS) with later bioinformatics data analysis. The KEGG database was used to establish which metabolic pathways were mainly involved. RESULTS: Multivariate and univariate statistical analysis revealed 120 metabolites that were significant (p < 0.05) after the intervention. Adolescents in the CTRL group (2 h/week) showed an increase in the subclass’s diglycerides (n = 8), triacylglycerols (n = 54), phosphatidylcholines (n = 25), and sphingomyelins (n = 2), indicating that the lack of a training program could contribute to the elevation of molecular species of lipids related to obesity and metabolic syndrome. On the other hand, adolescents grouped in the HIPE and LIPE programs showed a reduction in the subclasses of diglycerides (n = 8) and phosphatidylcholines (n = 21). These molecular species of lipids play crucial roles in cell signaling, and changes may indicate disrupted lipid metabolism and/or insulin resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Six months of HIPE and LIPE may reduce the associated effects of abnormal lipidomic profiles, thus preventing the development of obesity-related metabolic diseases in adolescents with overweight/obesity. These findings are clinically relevant because they support that metabolomic analysis will have a suitable niche in personalized medicine for adolescents with excess weight. TRIAL Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02753231.